Wednesday is usually my day to post about my travels in Japan but I am
writing my usual Monday post today on what is happening around my home.
Southern Arizona is on fire. It usually happens every year about this
time and this year is no exception.
We had no winter this year and the vegetation is bone dry, add
terrible weather conditions with high temps and dry winds that is only
adding to the start of a terrible fire season.
Three fires are out of control around Tucson. The Pajarita fire merged
with the Murphy Fire south of us near Tubac/Rio Rico. The Wallows
Fires near the Arizona/New Mexico border is the second largest fire in
Arizona as of today and is still growing every hour. The Horseshoe Two
Fire is just south of that and has been burning since May 8th.
The photo today is from Sunday 5 June. I walked outside and I could
smell the fire and could see a cloud of smoke that drifted over the
Catalina Mountains. The wind which has been so dry and hot has been
keeping most of the smoke away from Tucson as it is coming from the
west but there was a blanket of gray hovering over the valley of
Tucson for a few days.
If you have been reading this blog for awhile you know that my home
was destroyed in the huge Laguna Beach fire of 1993. Just feeling the
hot wind and a whiff of smoke in the air brings memories flooding
back with a vengeance. It is something you can never forget. It is
still hard for me to light a fire in my fireplace and I live in a home
with five fireplaces, go figure ! Not a huge selling point for me when
I bought this home.
The only saving grace is no lives have been lost and so far
evacuations have been keeping people safe. Several small towns are in
danger but so far the fire lines are holding.
I am so worried about all the wildlife that is truly running for their
lives.
The monsoons season starts next week but the summer rains although
beautiful to look at are very destructive and the lighting strikes
will only add to the problem.
waiting . . . parsnip
music. . . Heavy Clouds No Rain, Sting
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
zero containment and no end in sight.....
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It's the same here in Alaska with the driest may in 100 years. Actually the first drizzle is happening today. This year the fires are early and closer to dwellings. Evacuations happening amid all this remote wilderness. Magnificent scary plumes with shooting flames way to close to Fairbanks and one out in my neck of the woods that blows smoke in when the wind is right.
ReplyDeletetake care, xoxo Kim
If I prayed I would pray for you. As I don't I'll just keep everything crossed, and you in my thoughts. X
ReplyDeleteNuminosity...
ReplyDeleteGosh I didn't know it was that bad up your way... We always just assume Alaska gets lots of snow and rain.
keep safe...
Eryl...
Tucson is in no danger except for bad air quality right now and it is just something we all live with like the massive snow, ice and below freezing temps you get where you live. Only the wildfires can be more destructive.
Some years we have a very quiet fire season... it is all up to the whim of mother Nature. This is not a good year.
After reading your post, I googled "Arizona" and "wildfires". This probably won't make you feel any better, but your state is getting a lot of attention. Be careful!
ReplyDeleteReading your blog ap makes me realise how petty it is for us to complain about our lack of rainfall here. I hope things go well for you - you sound so philosophical about it all.
ReplyDeleteOkay let me try this again. I left a comment last night (or thought I did)and it isn't here. My home state of Montana is flooding bad. I wish I could take the water from there and quench the fire in Arizona. Scary stuff.
ReplyDeleteKirk...
ReplyDeleteand if it couldn't get any worst someone just set several fires by Flagstaff.
Arizona is on fire.
Weaver...
I don't see it as petty, where you live rain is ever bit as important as it is to us.
Carole...
well it worked... I had the same thought as I saw the flooding on the news.
Oh, Parsnip, if only I'd caught on about the square dogs sooner, we'd have already been friends. Mine (now long dead) were Mac, the black male, and Dusty, the wheaten female. I've been seeing you over at Kirk's and I'm an Arizona-lover, so I shall return often. I'm sorry about the fires! Being a Californian most of my life, I have been through a few.
ReplyDeleteLeslie...
ReplyDeleteWatson is a brindle 11 years old he was a companion for my black Scottie female Kirbey, that is why we call him Dr. Watson. Hamish 7 years old,is a Westie/Scotty mix and is always in conflict. Once you have Scottish Terriers you can never forget them. They kind of ruin you for other breeds.
I have lived in California for most of my life and you just live through the mudslides, fires, winds and crazy freeway drivers.
I hate fires.
ReplyDeleteI hope the monsoons come tomorrow!
This being said, I got into a terrific row with Katherine today. I wanted to leave for Tucson next Friday and come back Sunday. She insisted that she had told me she was having a party on Friday. I said, "no." So we went back and forth.
I suggested we leave Saturday and come home Monday.
She said that she had told me she starts summer school on Monday.
She won. I suppose we might be out there after summer school ends.
Much later in life, I befriended (and was owned by) a most beautiful little wire-haired fox terrier girl named JB. Ex got her in the divorce, by default, but not before her love infused some wonderful thins in my soul. Now I am (only, but happy) kept by cats ~ actually, more to my liking than dogs.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Las Vegas now, my 2nd sentence in life (8 years this time). It has its own stuf, not the least of which are heat, chill and WIND.
I wondered if the fires were close to you. I do pray, and I will pray for you.
ReplyDeleteYikes.... I hope it passes you by.
ReplyDeleteThe photo makes one smell the fire. I hope it is out by now.
ReplyDelete