Wildfire ‘24

[TBS]

I feel for you downwinders.

Last year there were six days between July 25 and Labor Day when AQI in my hood (and 75 miles in any direction) was less than 80 (my maximum for MTB rides). Even then you could taste the smoke.

[TBS]

And three hours later, AQI in town is 95…

[The AD]

A new wildfire has shut down Highway 20 through the North Cascades in Washington. I have a feeling it could be closed for a while.

[plugboots]

[el hefe]

BC just got lit up big time last night from lightning. It has been an incredible summer so far..... FFS!

[TBS]

^^^Yeah, Oregon had over 1000 lightning strikes Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Small fires everywhere on west slope of Cascades, Southern OR and Central OR.

[The AD]

Okay, I was wrong about that! Hopefully it can stay open.

[TBS]

Much of Oregon is on fire
And the area shaded in red signifies Red Flag Warnings

That blue dot it where I live. Prevailing winds are westerly


AQI has been Teh Suck


The reading of 32 is at the District Ranger Station
I think their sensor is inside the building.

I’m really beginning to hate living here - it’s to the point where you can’t go outside for half the summer

[muted reborn]

SLC fire near Ensign peak, started about 5pm tonight. Great pic by someone at KSL

[basinbeater]

^^^ Man I was watching helicopters fly back and forth from Red Butte and jets flying in circles all evening. Sketchy...

[bodywhomper]

I’m really beginning to hate living here - it’s to the point where you can’t go outside for half the summer

I’m sorry. We went through this for several years in a row at our place. It sucks.

[Meadow Skipper]

I’m really beginning to hate living here - it’s to the point where you can’t go outside for half the summer

It's kind of hard to think of a place I’d want to live that isn’t at more than a moderate risk of wildfire smoke.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

It's kind of hard to think of a place I’d want to live that isn’t at more than a moderate risk of wildfire smoke.

Same, I love the inter mountain west


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[Meadow Skipper]

I’m really beginning to hate living here - it’s to the point where you can’t go outside for half the summer

You’re not the only one I guess.
Why I Gave Up the Pacific Northwest to Move Back East

[yeahman]

We've had three nice summers in a row in Helena, with very little smoke. I knew we were due.

[Meadow Skipper]

^ After some rough summers recently, northern NM is doing good <knock wood>. Raining as I type. I’ve been afraid to mention it.

Though Ruidoso got its ass kicked, rain probably did the most damage.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

It used to be a lot smokier in the West according to historians. Summers were smoky and it makes sense, natural and native set fires without suppression.


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[Meadow Skipper]

It used to be a lot smokier in the West according to historians. Summers were smoky and it makes sense, natural and native set fires without suppression.

I’m too lazy to look up a reference, but Tom Swetnam, tree-ring-ologist extraordinaire, estimated that lightning and native fires in the Jemez Mtns (a not particularly big range in northern NM) burned about a million acres annually before (and this is key) industrial grazing and logging fucked up the system. The beautiful well-spaced Ponderosa pine forests of yesteryear burned regularly. You can bet the skies weren’t totally clear all summer. Wasn’t as hot back then tho.

Yosemite Valley is another place that burned regularly before Europeans showed up and got all heavy-handed. Old pictures show a way less dense forest.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

I’ve seen pictures from the late 1800s in the Cascades and it was a very different landscape than after a century of fire suppression. Lots more “parkland” forest, meadows and bare ridge lines. The result of natural and human caused fires.


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[TBS]

It's kind of hard to think of a place I’d want to live that isn’t at more than a moderate risk of wildfire smoke.

Yeah, me too. Other than the summer fires, I love it here. But every summer beginning 2016 we’ve had major fires in the area that make outdoor living unbearable for more than a month.

And it’s painful to see the places where I used to play since I was a kid turn to ash. Something like 400k acres in just the McKenzie River drainage has burned in the last 8 years. Whole towns burned.

I did get a 90 min MTB ride early AM the last three days when AQI was ~70 so maybe I should quit whining.

[TBS]

You’re not the only one I guess.
Why I Gave Up the Pacific Northwest to Move Back East

He’s a pussy. One shitty fire season and one heat dome and he’s out.

[Meadow Skipper]

He’s a pussy. One shitty fire season and one heat dome and he’s out.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

He’s a pussy. One shitty fire season and one heat dome and he’s out.

That’s what I was thinking, he’s soft


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[bodywhomper]

We’ve had several friends leave the Sierra foothills for NE, all, in-part, to escape the smoky summers. Last summer didn’t work out for them….

[406]

Getting a little too exciting at my parents house in Missoula. Of course they ignored the sheriff at 2am and did not evacuate. "but we hooked up the 5th wheel"
All photos from their deck...