PNW & Western wild fires. Know anyone affected?

[bogydave]

Just read Oregon has a big fire spreading fast.
In the Columbia River Gorge area.

Getting rain here finally, a good thing after a record dry summer.

 

[StihlHead]

That fire, or rather those three fires are just past the gorge northeast of me. They were all started by lightening in thunderstorms a few days ago. Two of the fires are now fully contained, according to the news. They staged a large fire crew near me here yesterday before they were deployed.The Dalles area is mostly grassland where they grow a lot of wheat and there are no large forested areas out there to burn, so they do not expect it to burn outward to any great extent. Local to the area though things are not good with the last uncontained fire. They evacuated more houses there about an hour ago, after many evacuations earlier in the day.

We are in our usual summer drought here, though it rained a few days ago. We will stay mostly dry though September and get a few rainstorms until mid to late October, when we will begin to get the long series of storms off the Pacific that will continue through next June.

 

[Highbeam]

This is the time of year that they ban campfires outside and I'd feel awful bad if I started another wildfire that forced crews away from the current fires. We drove through southern Oregon (Medford/Grants Pass) twice last week and it was a terrible smoke filled mess for over a week straight. Thick smoke for a long time on the interstate. That fire wasn't even in the news.

 

[bogydave]

This is the time of year that they ban campfires outside and I'd feel awful bad if I started another wildfire that forced crews away from the current fires. We drove through southern Oregon (Medford/Grants Pass) twice last week and it was a terrible smoke filled mess for over a week straight. Thick smoke for a long time on the interstate. That fire wasn't even in the news.

We had an outside burning ban early this year. At one time over 90 fires burning in AK.

This storm has all but put an end to wild fire season here.
Crews & aircraft are heading out to help in the lower 48.

 

[StihlHead]

This storm has all but put an end to wild fire season here.
Crews & aircraft are heading out to help in the lower 48.

Good news for us around here. We will likely have fires here for at least another month, and two more months in CA, and then SoCal will get the Santa Anna winds and go up in a flash. Fortunately the fires this year have all been when the winds are out of the west, and the smoke has not been a problem. Two years ago during the big fire in Parkfield (east and north of Mt Hood) we were smoked out for weeks from the west slopes of the Cascades clear out to the coast range. That burn is now a huge firebreak for us and these fires in The Dalles. I was up there last year and it is a vast area of burned moonscape, right up to the timberline.

 

[Hogwildz]

The Mrs says they have wildfires going on round her parts not far from Lake Chelan, WA.
She says sadly they are typical each summer.
I'm heading out there next month.

 

[Highbeam]

The Mrs says they have wildfires going on round her parts not far from Lake Chelan, WA.
She says sadly they are typical each summer.
I'm heading out there next month.

Other than the smoke, you'll love it. We were in Chelan for the fourth of July and it was burning already. Not sure it ever stopped.

That lake, it's cold. Really cold. Like ice water cold.

 

[StihlHead]

One of The Dalles fires jumped the lines yesterday and is out of control again after winds whipped it up. 800+ are on that fireline now, and it is back down to being 15% contained. Thunderstorms woke me up here this morning and lightening is likely setting off more fires around here today. There are 10 large fires burning in Oregon now. Meanwhile the forest service has pumped hundreds of millions onto these fires, and they are running low on dough. A time will come when we run out of money to put them out. The good news is that the weather is supposed to cool off for the next week here.

 

[fossil]

http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/wildlandfire/latest-news-map

 

[begreen]

Friends hiking the PCT have notice a couple of fires. They said the Dalles fire was like a big mushroom cloud in the distance.

 

[StihlHead]

Getting some ash from the fires here today, and a bronze colored sun when it came out for about an hour this afternoon. Winds should shift back to the west and clear things out and cool things off.

 

[Hogwildz]

Other than the smoke, you'll love it. We were in Chelan for the fourth of July and it was burning already. Not sure it ever stopped.

That lake, it's cold. Really cold. Like ice water cold.

I been out to visit a bunch of times, and been to Chelan a couple of them. Nice lil town. Kinda yuppieish and money driven, but still a nice place.
Will be staying in Wenatchee this time.

 

[begreen]

Will be staying in Wenatchee this time.

Home of the real Big Apple.

 

[bogydave]

Stayed in Leavenworth few years back.
Golfed in Wenatchee.
Apples were starting to bloom when there.
Beautiful place.
Gotta be close to apple picking this time of the year.

 

[StihlHead]

I am picking apples in my yard here. There are way more than I can eat, so I feed them to the neighbor's goats and pony (to keep the squirrels and wasps away from them).

Its raining here tonight in the west Cascades. Intellicast shows some rain around The Dalles, so maybe some help with the fires to the east.

 

[begreen]

Continuing dry here. Glad to see there is some rain on the Dalles.

 

[StihlHead]

Low pressure system is heading north by northeast, so it is heading into eastern Washington tomorrow. Rain is supposed to end here tomorrow morning.

 

[Hogwildz]

I don't eat apples, don't likem.
But there is plenty other things to eat.
We went to Leavenworth also. Also road all over.
We always go for rides when I go out.
Couple more weeks and I'll be there.

 

[begreen]

Have you headed out to the dry falls and Grand Coulee? That's an interesting trip. I just finished reading a Timothy Egan (fiction) book on the area that was pretty good called The Winemaker's Daughter.

 

[StihlHead]

Latest (good) news on the fires. More than 1,000 are out there on the lines now. Overcast, cool and damp here this morning with no wind and the humidity is way up. Winds are low at The Dalles (5 MH) right now.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-n...f/2013/08/rains_temporarily_keep_wildfir.html

 

[bogydave]

Latest (good) news on the fires. More than 1,000 are out there on the lines now. Overcast, cool and damp here this morning with no wind and the humidity is way up. Winds are low at The Dalles (5 MH) right now.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-n...f/2013/08/rains_temporarily_keep_wildfir.html

Good news.
That should help them get a better handle on the fire.

 

[Hogwildz]

Have you headed out to the dry falls and Grand Coulee? That's an interesting trip. I just finished reading a Timothy Egan (fiction) book on the area that was pretty good called The Winemaker's Daughter.

Yeap, been to The Grand Coulee a couple times, and Dry Falls a time or two. That is part of the large circle we ride on the bike.
Plus past Banks Lake (really like it there) and and Soap Lake I think it is called.
Pics 71 & 68 are Dry Falls
Pics 53 & 1572 Are The Grand Coulee Dam
57 is across the Bay from Seattle
63 & 1350 is at Pikes Market
and the other 63 with the bike is Banks Lake

Sorry if this is hijacking the tread, my apologies.

 

[StihlHead]

Raining here all day today. It looks like a nice fat band of rain is heading to The Dalles right now, so after today these fires will likely be history.

Sadly there is a huge fire north of Yosemite in CA where I have done a lot of off-roading (Niagra Rim area) that is growing, and the heat is intensifying there. I would imagine that a lot of the firefighters here will be heading down there next.

 

[begreen]

Man, all we got was a nuisance sprinkle. Not even measurable.

 

[StihlHead]

Yah, the storms went up through the Willamette Valley and both sides of the Cascades in Oregon, and then shifted to eastern WA state (the storm track just passed over Spokane).

It is raining here again now. I probably got 1/10th an inch today, maybe even as much as a quarter of an inch. The heavy rain was all on the east side of the Cascades though, where it will do the most good in the fire situation. They had rain in Idaho today as well, where a torrent of fires are burning.