Fire Season


 
The above picture was taken from our porch yesterday evening. It doesn’t show the brilliant orange of the sun, but it does show how the smoke is obscuring the view of Jemez Mountains a couple of miles away. The smoke was from the Wildwater Baldy fire in the southwest corner of the state, several hundred miles from here.

Fortunately the wind shifted and it was clear again today, with the temperature in the mid- to high-60’s.
 

 
As I write this (3:50 pm) the fire down south has consumed over 122,000 acres and is presumably still growing. To put it in perspective our Las Conchas fire last year burned over 156,000 acres and was the largest in New Mexico state history so far. It’s clearly going to be another bad fire year.

On a different note, Kaitlin wrote to say it’s 94 degrees where she is and everyone is inside enjoying the air conditioner, except for Montana, their youngest dog. She has short hair and is outside basking in the sun. Here’s a picture of her and Sammy that Kaitlin sent last night. You can see why Sammy isn’t basking in the sun too. 🙂
 

 
What’s the weather like where you are?

Thanks to Evan, Rummuser, bikehikebabe, Kaitlin, tammy, Nick, Kate and Max for commenting on last week’s post.
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19 Responses to Fire Season

  1. bikehikebabe says:

    But Sammy will go out in 94 degrees to EAT.

  2. Evan says:

    Definitely cooling down in Sydney. It never gets terribly cold here but cold for us.

  3. Mike says:

    Hot, which is normal for this time of year in Arkansas.

    Dry, we’re officially in a drought with burn bans for most of the state.

    Windy, unusual for us. Usually, when it gets this hot, the wind dies down and it gets really muggy, even if it doesn’t rain.

    It was 95° down in the valley, but we only got to just above 90° — and we’ve got a covered porch and deeply shaded yard, so it feels cooler.

  4. Kaitlin says:

    Yes, yes…Sammy is very motivated by his stomach.

  5. dcrelief says:

    In North Carolina we have a wonderful mix of rain and sunny days. If I hadn’t recently broken my shoulder, I’d be outside gardening!

  6. Jean says:

    bikehikebabe,
    I was assuming that picture was taken in the evening when it was a bit cooler, but I could certainly be wrong.

    Evan,
    How cold is that?

    Mike,
    I’m with you about the shade. I’m still having trouble understanding how Montana can stand basking in the sun when it’s so hot. Kaitlin says her black coat was hot to the touch. But apparently she really loves it.

    Kaitlin,
    My guess is most dogs are. But occasionally when I went over to the shelter here and offered the dogs treats one of them would politely take it and then drop it. He didn’t want it but apparently wanted to be polite.

    dcrelief,
    I’m sorry about your broken shoulder. You’re lucky to have the rain, though. We could certainly use some!

  7. Evan says:

    Sydney is coastal and sea level and extends inlands and up the mountains (well, we call them mountains – a bit over 1000m / 3000ft).

    Closer to the coast it occasionally gets down to freezing (32/0). Inland and in the mountains a few degrees colder. The mountains may get some snow a few days during winter. How this is changing is hard to say – we are having various records broken for extreme weather of all kinds. But the records only go back 100-150 years or so.

  8. Rummuser says:

    36° Maximum and 22° Minimum with around 40% humidity. We are at our tail end of the summer and today is the first indication of cooling down. Our monsoon will set in in the next ten days or so.

  9. Cathy in NZ says:

    http://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/auckland/auckland-central – I’m in the Waitakere Sector. So yes it’s cold, at least for me but there has been bright winter sun today…just nippy if you get in a “wind tunnel” – my rail station is in one such because it’s a trench!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Lynn_Train_Station

    the wall panels shown have got a bit “encrusted” with I guess “dirt” so they are not pristine and shiny…I live a couple of blocks from the station which is basically below the bus station so I’m lucky to have a good selection of destinations…

    I love how the website says “2 layers” obviously it a fit young runner who decides on that…

    oops got sidetracked from “weather” 🙂

  10. Jean says:

    Evan,
    Thanks. It will be interesting to see if the records continue to be broken. If so the climate may indeed be changing. I imagine it feels very cold along the coast when the temperature is that low. I still remember bone-chilling days in France. The temperature didn’t get as low as it does here, but the humidity made all the difference.

    Rummuser,
    We could use some of your coming rains. Not too much though. We do not need more flash flooding this summer!

    Cathy,
    Thank you for sharing the details of your life. I really appreciate it. Please never feel you have to stick to the nominal topic of a post. My aim is to get people to share parts of their lives, any part that’s meaningful to them. Again, thank you!

  11. Cathy in NZ says:

    thanks for that…and “thank you” for allowing me to go off-topic !

  12. tammy says:

    i love it when people go off topic! since i often do so myself.
    afraid i talk the same way. i’m a distracted soul apparently!
    i love the picture of montana and sammy. beautiful puppies!!!
    and the best line above about the little shelter dog that took the treat because he wanted to be polite, but then dropped it.
    they do touch me in ways nobody, fur or non fur, can!
    it’s in the 90’s here. dry dry dry. but supposedly rain on the way for tonight. only with it, the threat of severe storms. which often means tornados. gotta love this place!
    cheers monk,
    tammy j
    ps… holding good thoughts that the fires don’t rage for you this summer. you all deserve a break. a big break.

  13. Jean says:

    tammy,
    That dog was so sweet. I never will forget him, the way he looked into my eyes.

    Good luck with the possible tornadoes. The idea of them scare me—I’d rather have the forest fires. Even Andy, who was up in the mountains when the one last year headed straight for our property, had time to get out. Down here we have plenty of warning, even though we had to evacuate twice, once once in the year 2000 and then again last year.

    We’re not worried about another fire up there this year, but we will have to see if we have more flash flooding. We will obviously let you know, and please let us know if you have some severe weather where you are.

  14. tammy says:

    lol. well… you said to let you know.
    i went to bed with no electricity. temperature 90. wind gusting 65-70 mph and to the north of us about 20 miles, grapefruit size hail. (our insurance will be going up again!)…
    much thunder, lightning and possible rainwrapped tornados.
    this morning, my neighbor’s 40 ft tall silver maple is lying in my front yard. looking like a bushy toothpick somebody just tore in half. so sad.
    trees don’t stand a chance in this state. if the ice storms don’t get them, the drought and the tornados do.
    luckily it fell just between my own trees. amazing.
    but she was a beautiful thing indeed. especially in the autumn. and she gave much needed blessed shade. now no more.
    uh oh. sorry to whine. and on a “cheerful” blog!!!
    love,
    tammy j

  15. Nick says:

    It’s been unseasonably hot here for the last week – up to 26C. More like Australia. On Saturday I climbed Slieve Donard, the highest peak in the Mourne Mountains (about 2000 feet). We’re slurping up huge quantities of ice cream to keep cool….

  16. Cathy in NZ says:

    WOW Tammy such extremes of weather all in one day…oh how sad to find that leafy “toothpick” in between your own trees but at least it didn’t land on your home – take care…

    I can’t decide whether today is going to be fine or wet as right above my front yard is both sun and a deep dark cloud, fluffy white clouds and patches of blue! I haven’t got as far as the weather page…but whatever, it doesn’t matter because this day at home with “more words for last essay” 🙂

    However, the end of this week is a “long w/end” to celebrate (well not her exact date) Queens Birthday although I believe this is one of her special decades anyway…

    I have nothing planned at this point, which is how it should be although my great nephew is doing some sort of sponsored walk on Monday so I might try and get to that.

  17. Cathy in NZ says:

    Nick: even though we are virtually a millisecond away from one another, the weather doesn’t keep up with our own thoughts on how much heat, cold, rain, snow we want…but it does mean even on this blog we can say to ourselves “well at least I’m not getting that same thing today, i.e. all of with a giant toothpick of a tree in our own yards” 🙂

    I love icecream all year around…

  18. Jean says:

    tammy,
    I don’t regard that as whining. Trees are well worth mourning. It’s interesting that the tree went right between yours. The same sort of thing started the fire last year. A gale force wind blew over a tall tree that by a fluke went right between two other trees and hit a power line. As they say, the rest was history.

    The new fire down south now has the dubious honor of being the largest wildfire in New Mexico history–over 170,000 acres as of this morning. They figure they won’t be able to get it under control until July. New Mexico isn’t kind to trees either!

    Grapefruit size hail. Wow! And 90 degrees with no electricity. You clearly have to be hardy to live in Oklahoma.

    Nick,
    26 degrees C is about 79 degrees F, not that hot for late spring/summer here. I prefer it cooler but it’s a lot better than the high 80’s/low 90’s that we sometimes get. We do have an air conditioner in our living room during the day and fans at night after it cools off.

    Cathy,
    Please let us know how you end up spending the weekend.

  19. Mike says:

    Had a chance of rain overnight and today ’til 1 pm, but, so far it’s missed us…. 🙁 no relief from our baby drought, except that it’s going to be cooler for the next several days. 🙂

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