We have a bad wildfire gong on SW of Edmonton. Pretty early in the season I’d say. Several hot weather temps have been broken lately.
Spring Wild Fires
- Thread starter Snagglefoot
- Start date
I would imagine California and some parts of Arizona are going to burn pretty good this Summer. Once all this green dries out from all the rain they've had this past winter. I'm seeing green in places that never have been before.
So far the hills are still pretty green. As you said, the grass will dry out eventually. And with all the recent rain we have a lot of new herbage that will make great tinder.
Alberta declared a State of Emergency.
Ya she is getting pretty greasy out there. We have a few fires in Sask right now. Hot, dry and heavy winds...
Not very good.
Not very good.
Florida being the Australia of North America everything is backward here..
I live in SW FLA, fire season is April and May into June being the driest time of year,
fire season generally ends abruptly when the summer rainy pattern begins.
May24 2021 at mi casa. This would be the 4th fire in my immediate neighborhood since 2011.
this was the worst... 1500 acres before they got it under control
so good luck to you Canadians, hope it stays away from your house and business.
I live in SW FLA, fire season is April and May into June being the driest time of year,
fire season generally ends abruptly when the summer rainy pattern begins.
May24 2021 at mi casa. This would be the 4th fire in my immediate neighborhood since 2011.
this was the worst... 1500 acres before they got it under control
so good luck to you Canadians, hope it stays away from your house and business.
Looks like there is a large heat dome forming over Canada and the Northern States. Records are falling in Washington and Montana and as far north as the North West Territories in Canada. It will be 82 F here just north of the border.
do yall have Red Flag warnings going? drought situation?
Speaking of wildfires in the NW and Canada.
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/04...-insurance-company-use-of-wildfire-risk-maps/
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/04...-insurance-company-use-of-wildfire-risk-maps/
While not called RedFlag, we have a fire risk indicator and yes, Alberta is currently under drought conditions. It’s going to be a long hot summer.
yeah, I mentioned previously I live in SWFLA, and I just went outside to water the dogs... and smell smoke.. this time of year for us is pretty much fire season, as we haven't began our rainy season yet... place is all sand, so unless it rains everyday like in the summer, everything is dry... Give you an example how much rain we get in the wet season versus how little we get when its dry season.
last September we had 17 inches of rain... October was .91,Nov 22 was .5"Dec 1.7", Jan 23 .18", Feb .23" , Mar .91", April was actually higher 5.5", and so far this month 0... so we are dealing with the same thing on a smaller scale and waiting for the summer rainy pattern to kick it.
I hope yall get enough rain soon to minimize the issue for you... nothing worse than smoke polluted air for days at a time and no way to get away from it, if the fires dont affect you personally.
like where I live, there isn't any city water... so I know it is in my insurance rates.. any fire fighting requires them to truck in water they can carry if its a big brush fire you end up with a bunch of fire fighters from all over including the Forest Service.. and helicopter with the dipping buckets hitting local canals for water if the canals aren't dried up...
the local FD's do a pretty good job of not letting houses burn, but they will let everything else on your property go up in smoke as they are limited in the amount of water they carry.
Here is the current smoke map as well as an indicator of the fires across Canada and the USA.
The very small town near where I used to live in in Virginia 40+ years ago got a much better insurance rate because they put in a couple of large tanks of water for fire fighting use (only for FF use, I might add). IIRC they were 1,000 gallon tanks and the properties had to be with 1/4 or 1/2 mile of the tank to get a discount. I was told that they were one of the first communities in the state to do that and it worked out well for them. They had to increase local taxes a bit to pay for the system but the savings in insurance more than made up the difference.
The property where I live now used to be very rural and had no water lines in the area. They put in a restaurant on the edge of it about 30 years ago and they put in a large water tank on the adjacent vacant property and they also got a hefty discount on fire insurance.
If I lived in dry fire-prone area today and there were no water mains available I would certainly put in a large tank or other water reservoir. Even a swimming pool can hold thousands of gallons of water. I'm on a well but the county put in water mains less than 1/4 mile away a few years ago. However I still have a 500 gallon water tank and about 80 gallons in captive air tanks, mostly in the event that we lose power during a hurricane but it's there if it's ever needed.
FWIW, when I was a kid my father worked for the US Forestry Service. His main job was driving a very large IH truck with a large catapillar tractor on it that was used to plow the fire lines around large fires. But the truck also carried a 500 gallon water tank with a PTO driven pump and several hundred feet of 2" fire hose. He often got called out to put out many brush fires (mainly fue to campers or to lightning), road side fires (from people throwing cigarettes out of their car windows) and even house fires in areas that didn't have a FD. 500 gallons may not sound like a lot of water by today's standards but it was usually enough to stop anything other than a fully involved house fire or a full blown forest fire. We kept the truck and tractor at our home and I went with him on many of his calls and I can tell you a lot of stories about fires that he was involved in. Many of them house fires with horrific results. To this day, I have horror of house fires and I keep two fire extinguishers in each of my vehicles and several in the garage and one in almost every room in my house. Also two more in quick opening boxs mounted outside near my AC unit. Also outside faucets on every side of my house and a lot of hoses on reels and plenty of spray nozzles, all with quick disconnect couplings. Since living in this house, I've had to put out two nearby fires due to lighting hitting nearby trees and another fire due to a neighbor dumping hot embers near a wooden fence and setting it on fire.
Snagglefoot.. funny thing is we are planning on leaving for Alaska in a couple weeks with the RV.
I just hope it rains.
yeah, I've gotten rid of most of the trees and native palm stuff within 30 to 50 feet of the house... friggin cabbage palm and palmetto deadfall burn like paper soaked in gasoline.. I have a old firebreak in my back yard from the bulldozer crew for a fire in 2011..
bottom picture is all that is left of what was a pine forest 12 years ago... 2 good sized fires in last 12 years and its nothing but palmetto now. of course there were some new growth pine in there up until 2021, when the second fire wiped everything out except the palmetto stuff.. palmetto stuff being the cockroach of trees, nothing kills them but fire makes them grow even better.
this one is 2 years ago... cabbage palm just expode into flames.. good thing is my front yard is relatively spaced out and I dont allow the dead stuff to accumulate but the wind would still take the fire from one palm top to another.. at this point the elctricity was out so I didn't even have any water but lucky for me the FD sticks around to deal with these when they get close to peoples houses.
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Well good luck. Maybe bring along a couple C masks if you plan to walk about along the way.
wish me luck. this trip has beenmy intentions since 2020
2020 covid came along.
2021 my own particular forest fire in May 2021 ruined my RV.
2022 both my in laws were hospitalized for a total of 4 months or more, so there went my Alaska trip.
2023 looks like a go, and I'm not going to let a fire stop me, not unless I get to the point they close the road and I can't wait it out.
Young members of the Canadian Army Reserves fighting fires.
