This is a screenshot from a Denver webcam in Cheesman Park on an average day:
This is a screenshot from the same camera this afternoon:
We’re being told the haze is smoke from the fires in California, with a minor contribution from fires in Colorado. It’s made for some spectacular sunrises and sunsets, but we get a lot of those anyway. We need rain. A lot of steady, soaking rain. California needs even more.
Wow! It seems perverse to click the like button. I have asthma and the sight of that makes me look for an inhaler.
It didn’t look that bad from my house (about 20 miles north of this camera), but I wasn’t about to go outside to check. I don’t have asthma, but seeing this is almost enough to make my eyes burn.
I hope you and your home remain safe and well.
Thank you. But I live, essentially, out on the plains. All of Colorado’s fires are in the mountains, hundreds of miles from here.
It’s good to know you are not in danger.
Thanks. I appreciate your thinking of me.
More evidence that climate change is real.
Absolutely.
We were up at Lake Tahoe last weekend and it was bad there. In time all the trees here will completely burn down and the smoke will stop.
After the remains stop smoldering for months. (My, aren’t you the cheerful one.)
I was trying to keep things upbeat with some hope. 😉
It’s not easy, is it.
and Sydney Swelters.
Rain? What ‘s that?
I do believe we are in for one of the worst bush fire seasons ever, 99%+ of NSW is drought stricken.
How far from CAL is COL?
Rain, as I recall, is water falling from the sky. But don’t quote me on that.
The straight line, as-the-crow-flies, distance from Redding, site of the fire in northern California, to Denver, Colo., is 918.9 miles (1478.8 km). The shortest driving distance is about 1,200 miles (1931 km). Both big states. Depends on the points from which you measure. Denver to LA is 1,017 mi (1,637 km) by car, 830 mi (1,336 km) by air.
Well that would be something worth seeing.
That’s a helluva long way for smoke to travel; I though it must have been just a couple of hundred miles ? kms Although I suppose it’s not surprising when I think about the prevailing winds always/usually coming from the west at high altitudes
Yep, the jet stream is working against us right now.
Every time it looks like the land/parks might recover from the last time…flames appear again.
I guess if it hasn’t burned yet, it’s fair game. I worry now about Yosemite. Parts of the park are already closed because of a nearby fire.
Dreadful. I have to remember how nature uses fire to clean up her rooms and start over…humans are like ants in the way to her?
It’s hard to remember the big picture when people die, property is destroyed, and forests won’t recover in our lifetimes.
I know. I still remember how Yellowstone looked when I was a kid – and that fire was a long time ago. Alike, but different…still looks different.
Galveston county and Montgomery Co north have sent firetrucks and a crews in an effort to help and relieve those who have been there so long. Harris (Houston) probably can’t send trucks since a good number were ruined by floods – while they have managed to piece 3 of those back together with duct tape and rubber bands, one seems to be always breaking down on the way to a fire – and FEMA/insurance still hasn’t given the money to replace them…as a matter of fact, FEMA is denying claims for those 3 trucks “obviously those are working and in use, so we’re taking them off the list.” Great.
I understand Australia has also sent firefighters. Once again, it may be time to try to figure out how to retain flood waters in caverns – old oil co. guys here say a series of large underground pipe system that could be directional reversible as needed could easily be constructed just like natural gas lines…be people are going to have to decide to do it – and it will irritate land owners during the construction. Wasting water may not be advisable as the climate changes ( and it has been changing since the last ice age – no doubt about that. Just a normal cycle for the planet. We need to learn to work with it – and set thing up now to avoid water barons)
Water’s always been the big issue in the West, since the earliest settlements. No water, no nuthin’. The supertanker I’ve mentioned, that is owned and based here despite reports I’ve read from Calif., has been out there for weeks. Australia is likely to need their guys back. Old oil co. guys are too eager to build pipelines everywhere. And I sure hope Harris County doesn’t burn up waiting for FEMA. A community needs working fire trucks!
After experiencing a big natural event or two, one learns it’s better to be self reliant than depend on the feds/FEMA. Seems wrong to penalize people for trying to make-do.
The Aussie fire season is predicted to be brutal, too – so if available, maybe we can return the favor in a few months.
Some of the retired old timers really do some expertise and concerns about water needs like everyone else. There are already easements, but it would take time….Roman aqueducts weren’t built in a day…(the rock structures still stands, but those who built them, another story? Oh, well, times,needs, and technologies change)