Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Darwinism Revisited


The holiday is almost here.  Let the insanity begin.  Yet another wildfire is now raging near Alpine, with evacuations ordered.

Photo: Robynn Eccles
Ash from the fire can be seen in radar imagery and is training off toward the northeast given the southwesterly flow aloft.


Surface winds are moderate - not really strong, but strong enough to enhance fire spread.  We're also looking at temperatures at valley level in the mid 90s with relative humidities in the single digits.


I'm not sure what the cause of the fire is yet, but does anyone want to provide an over-under on how many human-caused fires we will see in Utah between now and the conclusion of the 4th of July?  I'll go with 6, including this one.

Update 4:40 MDT:

Below is an ominous view of the smoke plume from Snowbird.  Could a fire push across the Little Cottonwood-American Fork Divide given the lack of vegetation in the high alpine?


2 comments:

  1. It is terrible to see more fires burning across the west after witnessing the fire here in Colorado Spring. I hope the monsoon picks up, it rained here today, so it's a start.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We had great thunderstorms in northern NM last night... here's hoping some of that moisture makes it far enough north to Utah. Scary to think of the directions this fire could head if embers started flying over into LCC. The relative lack of beetle kill trees is a good thing.

    ReplyDelete