Your Weather 2023

[digitS']

Fires.

Not far away, the entire town of Medical Lake was evacuated - a city of 5,000. Houses were burned around one lake; houses were burned inside the city limits. Within 4 or 5 hours of the first reports, the state and news people were saying that the fire had grown from 500 acres to 3,000 acres. This fire is beside interstate 90, west of Spokane and in the Four Lakes area

I live east of there but the smoke was being blown by 35mph gusting winds from the west. The wind shifted near sundown. Ironically, that brought smoke from fires in Canada. The nearest monitor shows air quality as Very Unhealthy.

There are large fires burning in less populated mountainous areas on both sides of the Idaho and Washington border. The fire (Gray Fire) in the forested Four Lakes area is just one and a result of months of below normal rainfall and several years of dry Summers.

Steve

 

[Branching Out]

British Columbia is on fire, with many structures lost in the Okanagan over night (some estimates say 80 homes)-- and a difficult weekend ahead with north-westerly wind and dry lightning in the forecast. Another large fire started yesterday and has grown considerably in the last 24 hours; it is believed to be human caused, which is especially frustrating. This area is a hot arid region with orchards, wineries, and beautiful lakes for swimming. Some of the mayors are asking those who had planned to holiday in this area to cancel their vacation plans, so that hotel rooms can be made available for those having to evacuate their properties.

Canada's north has been suffering too, with the entire city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territory being evacuated over the course of the last week. There is an excellent smoke and air quality website from UBC in collaboration with other authorities, https://firesmoke.ca/

 

[SPedigrees]

British Columbia is on fire, with many structures lost in the Okanagan over night (some estimates say 80 homes)-- and a difficult weekend ahead with north-westerly wind and dry lightning in the forecast. Another large fire started yesterday and has grown considerably in the last 24 hours; it is believed to be human caused, which is especially frustrating. This area is a hot arid region with orchards, wineries, and beautiful lakes for swimming. Some of the mayors are asking those who had planned to holiday in this area to cancel their vacation plans, so that hotel rooms can be made available for those having to evacuate their properties.

Canada's north has been suffering too, with the entire city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territory being evacuated over the course of the last week. There is an excellent smoke and air quality website from UBC in collaboration with other authorities, https://firesmoke.ca/

I saw this on the news last night. Absolutely terrible, and I hope you are safe, Branching Out. The number 20,000 (persons being evacuated) sticks in my head. Even eastern Canada has been on fire this summer, which seems unimaginable.

If I could send our unwanted rain somewhere, your country would top my list. Stay safe.

 

[SPedigrees]

looks like a squall line coming right at us in a few hours. will get some weeding done until that shows up.

no, we don't need any more rains so another heavy one isn't going to help.

I can relate. Hope flooding does not impact you.

 

[Branching Out]

I saw this on the news last night. Absolutely terrible, and I hope you are safe, Branching Out. The number 20,000 (persons being evacuated) sticks in my head. Even eastern Canada has been on fire this summer, which seems unimaginable.

If I could send our unwanted rain somewhere, your country would top my list. Stay safe.

Thank you SPedigrees. A friend just returned from one of the wild fire areas with ash and embers in the air, and commented on what a relief it was to return to our leafy little suburb. I think we may get a bit of rain on Tuesday if we are lucky. We are not in any fire danger in our area, apart from the worst air quality possible that will be here tomorrow when the smoke blows our way. Our forecast shows a bright yellow sun with a dark brown patch over it; in other words, the sun will be out all day, but it will not be visible for the smoke. A couple of years ago we had a week of that kind of apocalyptic weather in mid-September, with an eerie orange glow from smoke-filled skies. It was cold without the sun, and the plants couldn't grow or ripen. Sure hope that scenario does not repeat. It was awful.

I suspect that many fire-traumatized Canadians are going to want to relocate to areas that are less fire-prone, but we are clearly running out of good options when even the Northwest Territories and the Maritimes are burning.

 

[flowerbug]

I can relate. Hope flooding does not impact you.

we get flash floods and there are still some rather soggy areas out there, like the ditches in front i suspected would still hold a little water, but i was able to mow most of everything today and only got soakers a few times.

the hardest part is an area where i'm mowing some thistles very low to the ground and it also happens to be an area that does get standing water for several days after heavy rains. i have the runoff calibrated to soak in as much water as i can in that area because it is also near where the well is at so i do want to encourage more ground water going in that space to offset the water that is being returned to the ground by the septic system which is downflow from the well, but just to be safe...

overall our gardens are now mostly protected from the flash floods and my drainage is all set up about how i'd like it. at least all but one small erosion gully that i do need to repair, but it's been there for a long time already and it isn't growing very fast so... i thought about going out there the other day and playing in the water as that would have been a lot more fun to do when it was flowing but i did not have enough time that day to do it. i'm hoping that i can get to it sometime the next few weeks while the ground is still moist from these rains.

 

[digitS']

Fires

Thousands and thousands of lower elevation forests burned. The fire near and in Medical Lake burned over 185 structures. Newest information is that it is 10% "lined." Right along interstate 90 with right at 50 miles of the highway now closed.

The air here moved into the Hazardous level. It is 448 on the 500 scale. Air indoors smells of smoke with the Dyson fan filtering it all day. No surprise - this was the situation in 2018.

 

[flowerbug]

sunny and extra warm (hot starts at 90F) today so i will be getting outside soon as about by noon i expect to be toasted. weeding the jungle and picking some dry beans.

 

[SPedigrees]

Thank you SPedigrees. A friend just returned from one of the wild fire areas with ash and embers in the air, and commented on what a relief it was to return to our leafy little suburb. I think we may get a bit of rain on Tuesday if we are lucky. We are not in any fire danger in our area, apart from the worst air quality possible that will be here tomorrow when the smoke blows our way. Our forecast shows a bright yellow sun with a dark brown patch over it; in other words, the sun will be out all day, but it will not be visible for the smoke. A couple of years ago we had a week of that kind of apocalyptic weather in mid-September, with an eerie orange glow from smoke-filled skies. It was cold without the sun, and the plants couldn't grow or ripen. Sure hope that scenario does not repeat. It was awful.

I suspect that many fire-traumatized Canadians are going to want to relocate to areas that are less fire-prone, but we are clearly running out of good options when even the Northwest Territories and the Maritimes are burning.

This is really horrible. They were saying of the fires in eastern Canada that only this winter's snowfall will finally quell them. A lack of good options for relocation is a thing for sure.

In my own rain-drenched northeastern US, we had a number of "climate refugees" move here in not-too-distant past years because this seemed safe from fires, earthquakes, tornados, etc, but now all bets are off. When Tropical Storm Irene hit here about 10 years ago, it was widely regarded as an anomaly, a once in 100 year event, but now climate experts are predicting more frequent catastrophic flooding. Landslides, both large and small have become a thing. Even trees and grasses are not enough to hold supersaturated soil.

I'm glad to know you are safe, as I am also, but it is a creepy feeling to be on an island of safety in the midst of all these ever expanding natural disasters.

 

[Dahlia]

Today we are expecting a high of 70 and we will have a gentle north breeze all day. Unfortunately we have really smoky air today due to a large fire up in Canada. The smoke has traveled clear down to Seattle already! Luckily it should clear tomorrow when the wind switches to the south! Thank heavens!