NID Heat Wave, Comments and Concerns..and berries? (Coeur d'Alene, Clark Fork: 2014, credit)
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Ahh, didn't know there was another Blacktail Mountain in north Idaho. I haven't been able to find a report of a fire on that Blacktail Mountain.
Looks like it's still (and hopefully stays) pretty small. Saw this on the Priest Lake facebook page:
FIRE DANGER - JULY 2, 2015
With the recent dry spring and the upcoming hot temperatures the Idaho Department of Lands and the US Forest Service would like to remind people of the fire danger in the Priest Lake area. As most folks know the warmer winter resulted in less snow depth and snow pack even though the winter precipitation was about normal. Then this spring happened and the period we normally see a fair amount of spring rains turned out to be warmer and drier than normal. This past June was the 4th driest June on record going back to 1951 at the ranger station weather station.
The result of the dry spring and much hotter than normal temperatures has caused the fire danger to be in the High to Very High category. The rains that came Monday night with the lightning storm helped take the edge off for a few days but by week’s end we will likely be in the Very High fire danger category and will likely stay there with the predicted hot and dry period.
In the Priest Lake drainage the storm Monday night resulted in 12 known fires between the IDL and USFS as of Wednesday. While most of these fires stayed small due to the lingering effects of the rain from the storm (most are 1/10th of an acre or less with the Blacktail fire about 3 acres), the trend with the hotter and drier weather is quickly eroding any gains from the rain. By the end of this week the effects of the rain will likely be gone.
Since this is July 4th weekend and we normally see lower fire danger we would like to remind people that fireworks are illegal on Forest Service and IDL lands. With the fire danger expected to be Very High with the hot temperatures, people shooting off fireworks is especially a bad idea this year and brings an increased risk of new fire starts. The IDL and USFS as well as the local Fire Chiefs are nervous about new fire starts and hope people can celebrate patriotically but without fireworks. Fire restrictions are not in place this weekend in the Priest Lake area but this will likely change next week.
Matt Butler – Forest Service Fire Management OfficerScott Hayes – Idaho Department of Lands Assistant Fire Warden
Kind of ironic for us. Our house in SoCal is on a canyon near a wilderness area, and we're always worried about fires, having been evacuated once, and on evac alert another year. And now we're building a cabin in another fire-prone area! But all you can do is clear that defensible space and (in our case) pay for fire protection outside of city limits. And keep your fingers crossed.
Last year we saw a fire developing in the Green Monarchs, but the fire department got it stopped in time before it started traveling down toward Clark Fork. I just hope all the fire departments can stay on top of the situation if it escalates. The Cedar Fire of 2003 in San Diego still has me traumatized--the fire got to within 300 yards of our house, and was stopped by the firefighters who made a stand up the street. And that one could have been stopped...it started the evening before, up in the mountains, and was reported, but nothing was done because of local politics, and because it went unchecked all night, it had spread to the foothills in the morning, and we were in its path...
This is such a tough issue here in the West.
We really should have a "let it burn" policy when it comes to any fires that aren't threatening communities or housing areas. Right now we spread our guys out so thin, and put them in such peril, not to mention the extraordinary cost, trying to defend any and every structure out there... it's just insane.
It's one thing when we're trying to protect communities and subdivisions, but quite another when we're trying to protect someone's cabin.
You just have to do the best you can, be as fire safe and "firewise" as possible, and hope for the best. The fires in the past 10 years have been so scary.
I love those photos of the air firefighting! Thanks for posting that.
I took this one from my driveway a few years back when there was a fire over on the back side of the small set of hills where we live. Like CFF we live in a fire prone area down here. Fortunately, we've never had a bad fire (knock on wood!).
One of the reasons we choose to go to Idaho instead of Montana is Montana is drier, and it seems more prone to wildfires than Idaho.
In our first and failed "homesteading" attempt, we had just left our pretty remote property in northern AZ when the "Hochdoerffer fire" blew through. Burned the forest all around us and our few neighbors. Luckily, our place was in the meadow and they dropped slurry and we just lost a fencepost and woodpile. Wildfires scare the snot out of me.
Me too, moved to Colorado Springs right after Waldo Canyon and was there during the Black Forest fire. Would be nice if some strange weather pattern would dump a soaker on us for a couple of weeks.
Me too, moved to Colorado Springs right after Waldo Canyon and was there during the Black Forest fire. Would be nice if some strange weather pattern would dump a soaker on us for a couple of weeks.
That would be wonderful. Last summer was so nice and damp.
I love those photos of the air firefighting! Thanks for posting that.
I took this one from my driveway a few years back when there was a fire over on the back side of the small set of hills where we live. Like CFF we live in a fire prone area down here. Fortunately, we've never had a bad fire (knock on wood!).
One of the reasons we choose to go to Idaho instead of Montana is Montana is drier, and it seems more prone to wildfires than Idaho.
Dave
Canada-air CF 110, otherwise known as a SuperScooper.
Canada-air CF 110, otherwise known as a SuperScooper.
I think it might actually be a Canadair CL-215, which is also known as the "Scooper." The Super Scooper is the Bombardier CL-415 (Canadair was merged into Bombardier in 1986). The Super Scooper has some extra vertical strakes on the horizontal stabilizer, which is an easy way to tell them apart.
Here's a CL-215, aka the Scooper
And here's a CL-415, aka the Super Scooper:
I think the plane in the picture Misty posted is a BAE-146. When traveling to Toulouse I frequently flew on a passenger version of that plane on the London-Toulouse leg.
Dave
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But all you can do is clear that defensible space and (in our case) pay for fire protection outside of city limits. And keep your fingers crossed.
Super Scooper
