Colorado Is On Fire
I’m a weather geek. A meteorology geek. I may miss most of the other news on a regular basis, but I will never miss the weather on the evening news. I like to know what’s coming up, so I can plan not only my wardrobe, but my activities. And even without that, I just like weather. Moving to Colorado last year gave me new weather, new clouds, new everything to get into.
I had never heard of a lenticular cloud before. I have seen dozens of them now. They are unique to my part of the country. I have taken pictures of them, which you can see here and here.
Part of weather predicting here is “red flag warnings” and fire warnings. We have been getting these daily for several months now. One would think, “oh, it’s going to be a windy day.” They would only be partially right.
Colorado is on fire this year. We have the worst drought conditions we’ve had in decades. These drought conditions, combined with the vast amount of pine-beetle-killed forests, are a recipe for disaster. In this kind of weather, with very little rain and high winds and hot, dry days (sometimes the temperature is over 100 degrees), a lightning strike, an unmonitored camp stove, a cigarette tossed out of a window, and yes, arson, all cause horrific fires that destroy homes, take lives, and burn up our view.
And unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that a big chunk of my state is now on fire. The biggest fire by acreage is north of us about 40 miles, dubbed the High Park fire. It took 20 days to contain it, it burned up 247 homes and killed one person and ate up almost 90,000 acres of land. A fire started last week near the college campus I work at burned 300 acres and caused evacuations, but no loss of houses or people. It is still not under control but is manageable. I have a picture of that fire here. Both of these fires started with lightning from our “dry” thunderstorms. We get wind, clouds, lots of verga, lightning and thunder, but no rain.
But the most devastating fire now is south of us in Colorado Springs, about two hours away. The volume of the fire is low, only about 18.000 acres, but it has destroyed nearly 400 homes and killed two people. The difference in this fire is that first of all, it started in a more populated area, meaning more homes would naturally be lost. Second of all, there is a strong suspicion that this fire was arson. This means someone, someone with a very sick mind, started this fire. At the peak of the fire last week, 32,000 people were evacuated. Hundreds of families don’t have homes to go to, and even the houses that were saved are likely severely damaged by smoke and water. Many had to leave quickly and left their houses with windows open, and food in the refrigerator, and laundry in the washers. This particular fire scared an awful lot of people. Finding out the FBI was already on the scene investigating the apparent arson makes it even worse.
It’s bad enough when Mother Nature conspires against us. But it’s even worse when some human being set that fire on purpose.
There are other fires throughout the state, all under varying degrees of containment. We hold our breath every afternoon when the little dry thunderstorms start up, hoping that the lightning stays in the clouds. This morning on my morning walk, the pattern of clouds and sun on Long’s Peak made me think there was fire on that mountain. It made my heart sink. Turns out it was JUST the sunshine, there was no fire. But I’m highly sensitive now to it all. This is my state, I love it, and I don’t want to see it burned up.
We need rain. Lots of rain. And we need cooler temperatures. We are going through a mad run of extremely high temperatures, breaking records almost daily. This is my first year in Colorado, but I’m told by natives that this is highly unusual. I also know we are headed into our monsoon season, when we get showers almost every afternoon. If those showers can just amount to moisture, instead of dry high-based thunderstorms, that would be great. It’s just barely July. We have a whole lot of summer left to go through. I’d like it to be enjoyable.
And now, we are under fire restrictions. This means no fireworks at all, and it also means most communities are cancelling their usual large fireworks shows. We can’t afford to start a fire, not even in town. It would be crazy of us to think we could do that right now.
Are we safe, me and my family? Yes. We live in town, about five miles as the crow flies from the mountains. Even if there was a fire, it is unlikely to come into town and wipe us out, as the firefighters would get to it before that happened. Nothing is impossible, of course, but it is unlikely. I still want to live in the mountains, but seeing the devastation, knowing what could happen, has made me rethink some of that. I don’t want to be alarmist, but I also don’t want to take unnecessary risks.
If you have time, pray for Colorado. I am, every day.
We are so dry here in Mo as well. St. Louis isn’t as bad as down south. I went to our property (first time in about a month) and everything is dead! The grass is yellow, the trees are turning brown, there is no undergrowth to speak of, and the leaves are curled up on just about eveything that still has leaves! It’s terrible! There is a fire raging near Ironton – they closed Hwy 32 because the fire jumped the road and they say about 300 acres so far is gone. I don’t think they have this one contained yet – the wind has been blowing and the air is so dry. We have been having tempuratures over 100 since we got back from PSG. Last night on my way home I drove through thunderstorms but Bill says we didn’t get anything down at our place so it’s still hot and dry.