In ancient Rome, gladiators would face the crowd and say, "We who are about to die salute you".
Today, we have the meteorological version of this.
Look at the visible satellite image this morning. There are two west-to-east smoke plumes, hundreds of miles long.
One originates on the Olympic Peninsula (the Bear Gulch Fire) and the other on Vancouver Island (Port Alberni fire)
Neither fire was that large.....they are NOT megafires (sorry Seattle Times and NY Times). Each is around 5000 acres.
But they are smokers, burning in areas that have been logged with lots of flammable debris on the ground (see example near the Port Alberni fire)
Fortunately, the days of these fires are numbered.
As mentioned in my last blog, heavy rain is coming to the coastal mountains.
Below is the current forecast precipitation total through Saturday at 5 PM. Three to five inches of rain on west-facing slopes. Substantial rain over eastern Washington.
A less-than-average wildfire season so far is going to end that way.
I’ve been doing wildland fire for 5 years now. The dryness and heat doesn’t help at all obviously… but the condition of the woods from decades of logging is why western Washington, Oregon bc and Idaho get these bad fires now. And more logging/ fuel brakes isn’t the answer. Logging makes the woods thicker, dryer and with more 1 and 10 hour fuels then is even close to natural in this area. Wana make the fires less bad in the future? Let some burn/ manage them and change the way we log and destroy the temperate rainforest. carry on though 🙂. Also bear gulch is being managed not suppressed as it’s in national park now.. but no one will tell u that..
ReplyDeleteBeen doing wildland fire for 5 years now. The main issue and reason these fires get so big now is from decades of logging. The forest isn’t even close to a natural state of equilibrium these days. And more logging and fuel brakes isn’t the answer. That just adds more 1 and 10 hour fuels which is what burns hot and fast and gets these big fires going. Most aren’t even native to the area at this point like blackberry and scotchbroom. The damage is done and now the hotter drier weather just wreaks havoc here. Get used to the smoke at this point
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