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JimD

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Arizona fire disaster
« on: July 01, 2013, 06:24:24 PM »
The other day on another thread we were talking about the incredible temperatures out here in AZ and the southwest with some temps exceeding 120F yesterday and the day before.  I also mentioned that at my house in Prescott, AZ we were at 38% of normal yearly rain and that we had not had a normal year of rain since 1998.  Two weeks ago we had a wildfire on the north side of Prescott that burned about 7000 acres and very nearly burned large numbers of homes. In that fire a Prescott based  elite fire crew called the Granite Mountain Hotshots (nationally certified as an elite unit) helped make a stand to protect the homes where the fire burned in so close that some of the houses were smoking and the yards burned.  They truly put their lives on the line. 

Yesterday afternoon we were overjoyed at our house when we got a hard thunderstorm and the first rain in about 100 days.  Unfortunately the giant downdrafts from this huge storm were very hard and at that time the same fire crew mentioned above was making a similar stand to protect the little town of Yarnell just south of us from another wildfire started by lightning the day before.  When the downdraft hit the fire line it instantly turned the fire around and moved it at speed right over the fire team and into the town.  19 Prescott firemen died and 200+ homes burned in minutes. 

When we read about these droughts and the effects they will have on wildfires in the west over the next few decades this is what we will be seeing more often.  One of my sisters lives in Colorado Springs and last year a fire that burned 350 homes stopped just a 1/2 mile from her house and then a couple of weeks ago on the other side of Colo Springs a wildfire burned 500 homes.   It is only a matter of time before there is one of these fires that kills large numbers of people and destroys thousands of homes. 
We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

How is it conceivable that all our technological progress - our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal? Albert Einstein

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Re: Arizona fire disaster
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2013, 07:33:12 PM »
The other day on another thread we were talking about the incredible temperatures out here in AZ and the southwest with some temps exceeding 120F yesterday and the day before.  I also mentioned that at my house in Prescott, AZ we were at 38% of normal yearly rain and that we had not had a normal year of rain since 1998.  Two weeks ago we had a wildfire on the north side of Prescott that burned about 7000 acres and very nearly burned large numbers of homes. In that fire a Prescott based  elite fire crew called the Granite Mountain Hotshots (nationally certified as an elite unit) helped make a stand to protect the homes where the fire burned in so close that some of the houses were smoking and the yards burned.  They truly put their lives on the line. 

Yesterday afternoon we were overjoyed at our house when we got a hard thunderstorm and the first rain in about 100 days.  Unfortunately the giant downdrafts from this huge storm were very hard and at that time the same fire crew mentioned above was making a similar stand to protect the little town of Yarnell just south of us from another wildfire started by lightning the day before.  When the downdraft hit the fire line it instantly turned the fire around and moved it at speed right over the fire team and into the town.  19 Prescott firemen died and 200+ homes burned in minutes. 

When we read about these droughts and the effects they will have on wildfires in the west over the next few decades this is what we will be seeing more often.  One of my sisters lives in Colorado Springs and last year a fire that burned 350 homes stopped just a 1/2 mile from her house and then a couple of weeks ago on the other side of Colo Springs a wildfire burned 500 homes.   It is only a matter of time before there is one of these fires that kills large numbers of people and destroys thousands of homes.

With persistent drought in the Western U.S. being caused by the loss of Arctic ice, we should expect the bulk of the southern Rockies to burn down over the next century.

JimD

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Re: Arizona fire disaster
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2013, 05:16:44 PM »
SH

True, probably more than once.

On the news here a senior AZ fire official indicated that one reason the fire was so intense was that the brush in the area had not burned in over 40 years.  He said that it needed to burn every 15 years or so. 

Parts of Prescott (which we deliberately chose not to live in) are a perfect situation  for one of these great disasters. If the fire on Granite Mountain 3 weeks ago had started just a 1/2 to 1 mile further south we would have lost hundreds of homes most likely.  A similar fire on the southwest side of town (just a couple of miles further south than described above) could litterly burn clear across the city as it is heavily forested, rugged terrain, and densely populated.  If it had not rained for 3 months and there was a strong westerly wind there would be no stopping it.
We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

How is it conceivable that all our technological progress - our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal? Albert Einstein

Lynn Shwadchuck

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Re: Arizona fire disaster
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2013, 10:48:40 PM »
Believe it or not, Weather Canada has a smog advisory on our local weather page in rural southeastern Ontario. In the forecast it says "local smoke". Before I saw this, I noticed a strange sub-fogginess this morning that an overcast day didn't quite explain.

This must qualify as a negative feedback of a positive feedback.

http://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/on-61_metric_e.html
Still living in the bush in eastern Ontario. Gave up on growing annual veggies. Too much drought.

John Batteen

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Re: Arizona fire disaster
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2013, 11:46:18 PM »
That same smoke has been visible here in southeastern Minnesota too.  I don't remember where exactly but they said it was coming from Canada.  Makes for great sunsets.

Lynn Shwadchuck

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Re: Arizona fire disaster
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2013, 02:49:53 AM »
I was mistaken yesterday. The smoke was in fact coming from north of us.
Still living in the bush in eastern Ontario. Gave up on growing annual veggies. Too much drought.