PDA

View Full Version : Fire situation in Southwest USA



Ba-ba-Ra
14th June 2011, 18:51
Email posted on UrbanSurvival

Greater SW is in the worst way with fires. We are a solid 5 hour drive east of the Wallow fire, and have been experiencing smoke like we have never seen before. Several times last week, visibility closed down to less than a mile-this is absolutely unheard of for a fire hundreds of miles away! The smoke is definitely impacting people's lives around here-and since the fire started gifting us with the smoke plume, we have never seen a full day with clear skies. The haze is ever present-and we often have to contend with the stinging odor as well. Best estimates are that the fire will continue to burn until extinguished by the summer monsoon-but its anyone's bet if the bone dry weather pattern will let up at all, even over monsoon season. National weather service was claiming that the dry pattern was easing up a month ago-but no one has noticed any easing around here. Actually, considering how shy the forest service is to use their power to enforce closures, its pretty amazing that the idiots haven't burned up more acreage! Well, we're all hanging on here, trying to remember exactly what snow and rain look like.

Check out the US Drought Monitor ~ not looking good for the Southwest.
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

Strat
14th June 2011, 18:55
Sorry to hear that. Things aren't great here in Florida either, Gov. Scott declared a state of emergency. Here in the Jacksonville area there are over 70 fires going on. I can smell the smoke from the inside of my house at certain times. It rained pretty good yesterday, though not where the fires are and the rain seemed to carry the smoke rather than disperse it.