Our luck has run out........

[Brent2489]

Mike,
Looked to the south about 1.5 hr out of San Francisco and all I saw was clouds. Hope all is OK there.

 

[ibglowin]

We actually got away for a few hours today. Went to Santa fe and ran a few errands. Coming back it looked like some bad scene out of a post apocalyptic sci-fi movie...... The monsoon moisture is starting to move in finally (July 4, right on schedule really) and tonight we got about a 15 min light shower here in White Rock so hopefully they got some up where it was really needed in the mountains.The fire still grew by 9000 acres in the last 24 hours to over 114,000 acres and it is now the largest wildfire in New Mexico history. Los Alamos is still evacuated but they hope to start bringing people home perhaps tomorrow or Monday at the latest if all goes well. Smoke is still bad up there so they don't want to bring people back till its safe to breath the air a bit more.

Here is a pic we took while coming back from Santa fe today with my iPhone.

 

[OilnH2O]

Hang in there, Mike!

 

[Waldo]

bummer

 

[ibglowin]

Hurray! The evacuation of Los Alamos is suspended as of 8:00AM today. The road up into the Jemez mountains is still closed due to the fire but it will be good to repopulate the townsite for sure.

 

[ibglowin]

Less anyone think this fire is out, it is not by any means. We go back to work tomorrow and this is what we will all be looking at.......

Date Started: 06/26/2011

Cause: Human

Percent Contained: 27 %

Size: 127,821 acres (updated from Infrared map)

Total Personnel: 2,196 including 54 crews

Resources: 18 Helicopters; 81 Engines; 35 Water Tenders; 10 Dozers

Residences: 410 threatened; 63 destroyed

Outbuildings: 110 threatened; 32 destroyed

Commercial Property: 45 threatened; 0 destroyed

Injuries to Date: 4

 

[Runningwolf]

Holy cow Mike thaks for those statistics. Lets hope those mosoon rains get there in a hurry to assist in putting that fire out. Are these mountains big enough for there to be a concern about mud slides later?

 

[ibglowin]

You bet. They built a bunch of electronic monitoring systems and retaining walls in several of the canyons that feed into Los Alamos back in 2000 after the Cerro Grande fire. May need some more now as this is burning for the most part in new unburned areas.

 

[ibglowin]

We have a high pressure ridge over us for a few more days then it looks like the monsoons will really move in by the weekend. Lets hope so.Smoke is horrible this AM at work, can't imagine working up in Los Alamos proper. My building is about half way between White Rock and Los Alamos and smoke is God awful this AM. Winds should pick up in a few hours and move it on out by lunch time.

 

[Wade E]

Like it wasnt hot enough over there already Huh Mike?? Is that what they mean when they say its a "Dry Heat"?

 

[ibglowin]

It blew up again this afternoon big time. It ate up another ~4000 acres as well and is now about 131,000 acres burned and 30% contained. No rain today again.......

Hopefully in a few days......

 

[Runningwolf]

We have a high pressure ridge over us for a few more days then it looks like the monsoons will really move in by the weekend. Lets hope so.Smoke is horrible this AM at work, can't imagine working up in Los Alamos proper. My building is about half way between White Rock and Los Alamos and smoke is God awful this AM. Winds should pick up in a few hours and move it on out by lunch time.

...and now we have the mother of all dust storms in Arizona. Good lord whats next? Oh Yeah, insn't hurricane season right around the corner?

 

[ibglowin]

You don't want to believe in "Al Gore" and global warming, fine but you got to admit we have had some way messed up weather for the past 3-6 months....

 

[andy123]

My son is working in Colorado reforesting a mountain. A lady who worked in conservation was frantically burning love letters and started a huge forest fire. He loves the job regardless.

 

[andy123]

You don't want to believe in "Al Gore" and global warming, fine but you got to admit we have had some way messed up weather for the past 3-6 months....

It really has been.I was visiting Indiana and they were closing roads due to flooding and by night fall I was driving thru Atlanta and they were crying about drought and water levels being at historic lows.God seems pissed. Guess we should talk to him.

 

[Dean]

I hope they get it contained. In 2003, we had one helluva fire season, that destroyed almost 62000 acres, and took out 239 homes. It was one of the worst we'd seen in a highly forested region.

Details are here

This was one of about 4 fires that grew that large that year.

 

[ibglowin]

Hard to believe BC could ever dry up that much and burn. Has the area recovered much since the park reopened in 2005?

 

[Scott B]

Fire in the West,
Floods in the East,
Hurricanes in the South.
Who is going to get the Locust next?

 

[Dean]

The area has been logged and replanted. We were lucky that most of the areas had been ravaged by Mountain Pine Beetle, so the wood was already dead, hence the out-of-control nature of the fire. It's been replanted and seems to be coming back. Some of the communities that lost mills, however, have not recovered, and have become ghost towns.

 

[vcasey]

Oh Yeah, insn't hurricane season right around the corner?

No - Already here.
Last week we got rain from 1 large system in the Gulf. Still early and quiet out there but all it takes is 1 nasty storm to make it a bad season.