2022 Wildfire Thread

[Diggin It]

We've already seen Colorado, Texas, Tennessee and now New Mexico (at least).

Storm Prediction Center lists Fire Risk days as well as storm risk days and there doesn't seem to be any easing in sight.

Climate Prediction Center shows extended dry periods for much of the west and southwest.

 

[Snobdds]

Diggin it is a fear chaser...

 

[sea2summit]

Diggin it is a fear chaser...

Me thinks he makes random emergency trips to the local wally world for toilet paper in the middle of the night.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Firefighters from our local Forest Protective Association have headed to Texas to help out. At least we're getting some spring rains. Last year it stopped raining in March and didn't rain again until October. Five months of fire paranoia. Fingers crossed for this year.

 

[Diggin It]

Not getting better ....

https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-religion-marriage-b6a4ec4a28ce2674932573ba6c850f4a

More evacuations expected near dangerous Southwest wildfires​

By MORGAN LEE AND CEDAR ATTANASIOtoday

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Thousands of firefighters battled destructive wildfires in the Southwest as more residents prepared to evacuate Friday into the weekend in northern New Mexico where strong winds and dangerously dry conditions have made the blazes hard to contain.

 

[oosik]

We, also, are getting nice spring rains - Larry. Out on the porch - Wed AM. I smelled smoke. Checked my Davis weather station. Gentle breezes out of the NNE. It was smoke from my neighbors wood stove. He lives NE of me.

 

[Hay Dude]

Me thinks he makes random emergency trips to the local wally world for toilet paper in the middle of the night.

I was thinking he was more a bidet type of guy?

 

[jyoutz]

It was a below average winter for snowfall, but we had decent late winter snowpack. Relentless pacific cold fronts with steady 30 mph, gusts to 70 mph winds have been the problem. Yesterday was bad, today is calm as the front has passed to the east. Hopefully this cold front pattern will end soon. It really hard to deal with wildfires under those weather conditions.

 

[ponytug]

We, also, are getting nice spring rains - Larry. Out on the porch - Wed AM. I smelled smoke. Checked my Davis weather station. Gentle breezes out of the NNE. It was smoke from my neighbors wood stove. He lives NE of me.

Nothing like the smell of smoke in the dry season to get my adrenaline running.

Stay safe out there.

Peter

 

[Larry Caldwell]

We, also, are getting nice spring rains - Larry. Out on the porch - Wed AM. I smelled smoke. Checked my Davis weather station. Gentle breezes out of the NNE. It was smoke from my neighbors wood stove. He lives NE of me.

Still raining today. 0.6" just last night. It's glorious. We have had one of the wettest Aprils on record. Last year it quit raining in March. The problem with a wet spring is that the vegetation goes nuts, and the fuel load is extreme after it dries out this summer.

 

[tacticalturnip]

There is a reason I live where the winter air hurts my face; to all those who live under threat of wildfire, do stay safe.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

One of the wildfires here in NM has blown up overnight from 50,000 acres to 100,000 acres..... 8% relative humidity, exceptional drought conditions (for about 3 years now) and 40-50 mph winds forecast for tomorrow. Houses lost, many, many communities evacuated..... not going to be good.....

Another wildfire has expanded from 600 acres to over 6,000 overnight. It's just way too dry and windy.

 

[tacticalturnip]

One of the wildfires here in NM has blown up overnight from 50,000 acres to 100,000 acres..... 8% relative humidity, exceptional drought conditions (for about 3 years now) and 40-50 mph winds forecast for tomorrow. Houses lost, many, many communities evacuated..... not going to be good.....

Another wildfire has expanded from 600 acres to over 6,000 overnight. It's just way too dry and windy.

Seriously, you lot take care of yourselves; wildfires are one of the most frightening things to exist in nature.

 

[jyoutz]

One of the wildfires here in NM has blown up overnight from 50,000 acres to 100,000 acres..... 8% relative humidity, exceptional drought conditions (for about 3 years now) and 40-50 mph winds forecast for tomorrow. Houses lost, many, many communities evacuated..... not going to be good.....

Another wildfire has expanded from 600 acres to over 6,000 overnight. It's just way too dry and windy.

The mountains did get decent late winter snowfall, but these spring cold front driven winds are brutal and have sucked all of the moisture from the vegetation. There’s not much you can do on the fire lines when the winds are gusting to 50+ mph. When I served on an incident management team, our incident commander used to call those “bleacher days”, meaning sit back and watch it because it’s too dangerous to take any suppression actions.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

When the wind blows, nothing stands in front of a wildfire. All you can do is run.

 

[jyoutz]

When the wind blows, nothing stands in front of a wildfire. All you can do is run.

And you better have a good head start, because you can’t run faster than the fire.

 

[ericm979]

I hope everyone in NM is ok. The weather service is reporting really severe fire conditions- high winds and single digit humidity- for the next few days.

 

[jyoutz]

I hope everyone in NM is ok. The weather service is reporting really severe fire conditions- high winds and single digit humidity- for the next few days.

Yeah it stinks. I hate these late spring Pacific cold fronts. Non-stop winds. We get these every year, for a few days at a time. This year, it’s been nonstop for weeks. Looking at the maps of the large fires it looks like they are starting to get them lined and burned out. But with these winds, nothing is safe yet.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Watching the fires in the desert SW has put some perspective on why the Anasazi civilization did not survive the drought. If you are primitive farmers and a wildfire destroys your crops, what are you supposed to eat? Modern transportation will keep people from starvation, but 1200 years ago it would have been impossible to survive.

 

[jyoutz]

Watching the fires in the desert SW has put some perspective on why the Anasazi civilization did not survive the drought. If you are primitive farmers and a wildfire destroys your crops, what are you supposed to eat? Modern transportation will keep people from starvation, but 1200 years ago it would have been impossible to survive.

Actually most of these fires are not in the desert. They are in ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests in the Rocky Mountains. But yes the Anasazi did live on high desert mesas.