It's raining! Yippee!

[snowleopard]

After one of the earliest fire seasons I've seen here, and three weeks of fires breaking out one after another, it started raining off an on a week ago. At first it didn't look like it was going to do much--that aggrevating smoky rain state--but then three days ago the heavens opened and it's been pouring buckets intermittently, just massive monsoon-style, gutter-washing downpours. The mud has washed out of my driveway and off the access road, and we're back to gravel. Some of the non-locals have been overheard complaining about the rain, and the locals are quick to educate them about how wonderful this is. This could shape up to be the best summer we've had here in the Interior for several years.

Here's a link to what we were facing before this last week: http://www.newsminer.com/pages/full...as+fuels+reach+-historical+maximum-+dry+level &id=7743885&instance=blogs_editors_desk

Interesting comment beneath article about the fire started by someone operating a chainsaw.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

After one of the earliest fire seasons I've seen here, and three weeks of fires breaking out one after another, it started raining off an on a week ago. At first it didn't look like it was going to do much--that aggrevating smoky rain state--but then three days ago the heavens opened and it's been pouring buckets intermittently, just massive monsoon-style, gutter-washing downpours. The mud has washed out of my driveway and off the access road, and we're back to gravel. Some of the non-locals have been overheard complaining about the rain, and the locals are quick to educate them about how wonderful this is. This could shape up to be the best summer we've had here in the Interior for several years.

Here's a link to what we were facing before this last week: http://www.newsminer.com/pages/full...as+fuels+reach+-historical+maximum-+dry+level &id=7743885&instance=blogs_editors_desk

Interesting comment beneath article about the fire started by someone operating a chainsaw.

regarding the rain & moisture... welcome to what Montana has been experiencing for the past several months... I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about fires down here right now... everything is beyond saturated... I swear you could take a blow torch to stuff around here & not even get close to ignition... high elevations are still buried under feet of snow- US-212 over Beartooth Pass was delayed about 2 weeks from it's normal re-opening date due to so much snow: http://www.ktvq.com/news/beartooth-highway-open-all-the-way-1/

 

[snowleopard]

Happy to join in you the state of sog. I've seen the smoke so bad here in recent summers that we literally laid around the house not doing anything because of the effort to breathe.

The snow on the pass sounds pretty amazing--would love to see pix.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

Happy to join in you the state of sog. I've seen the smoke so bad here in recent summers that we literally laid around the house not doing anything because of the effort to breathe.

The snow on the pass sounds pretty amazing--would love to see pix.

ya... that's what Mt was like just a few years ago... a pretty severe drought with some pretty large fires... Ft. Peck Reservoir on the Missouri River was so low just a few years ago that some of the boat ramps were literaly a mile or more from water... & now the reservoir is less than a foot from it's all-time record high water level... tornados also seem to have gotten more numerous also... it used to be we got several tornados per season in the state, last year we had more tornados in the month of June than the average number we get in a year... this year it seems like we've had one of the earliest "tornado seasons" in the state... tornados used to be confined mainly to the height of summer like July/August... it's all very odd...

As for pics... I don't know if you do facebook or not, but if you do, here's a larger version of the picture on the news story: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...a.77190934981.20217.31651194981&type=1&ref=nf

There's a small summer ski area up near the summit of the pass- last year they didn't have enough snowpack to spin the lifts, this year they have too much snow to open it right now!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Snowleopard, that is good news that you are getting the much needed rain now. Congratulations.


On another note, today I learned that most of Arizona is covered by smoke. The annual Race Across America (RAAM) is being run right now and the racers started off with around 112 degree temperatures and now are riding in smoke. Naturally they will all use masks but that has to be tough riding a bike 300 miles per day in smoke. I hope they get out of that fast. Then they will be facing some severe cold as they move north and go to higher elevations. Last year in RAAM on Wolf Creek Pass I drove through a snow storm! I hope they don't face that this year but fear they will.