Fasting BG

[bigskygal]

114 this morning.

86° was the high yesterday. Today's forecast is 86°/51°. Sunny but air quality is Unhealthy due to all the smoke. Maybe some small rain over night. Gradually getting warm again next week. Hope not as hot as we have had!

Quiet day planned.  Now staying in because of the smoke. No fire that close to me thank goodness!

[walkerwally1]

103 this morning.  Our high yesterday was 109° again but it is supposed to be a cooler 104° today and our overnight low was 10° cooler at 75° so a definite cooling trend for the next few days. 
Fires are causing a lot of damage in Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Canada with many homes and structures destroyed. The largest fire in California is in the Northern part of the state and is at 164,000 acres and not near containment with large scale evacuations.  Something we have to live with but still pretty devastating.

[bigskygal]

114 this morning.

79° was the high yesterday. The smoke covered the sun much of he day. Today's forecast is 84°/51°. Air quality is unhealthy again today. May be a shower or two this morning but that isn't going to be any help with the smoke unfortunately. At least it is cooler but even that is going to change again mid week...

Collecting garbage and maybe is about it for today.

[walkerwally1]

82 this morning.  Our high yesterday was 100° so lower than even the prediction and it looks like we will be seeing temps in the low 100s for the next week.  Pretty smoky with two fires in the local mountains. The fire in Northern California is called the Park fire and it is now over 350,000 acres and only 10% contained.  It is now one of the largest fires in the state ever and covers more acreage than all of the fires in 2023 and threatens the town of Paradise that was destroyed by fire in 2018. 

[bigskygal]

121 this morning.

79° was the high yesterday. Today's forecast is 87°/58° cloudy/smokey and possible a few rain showers. What a difference from last week! I'll take it for now!

It will be another lazy day, just take the garbage up the road and do a laundry. Towels and sheets have been piling up, time for washing them!

[walkerwally1]

102 this morning.  Our high yesterday was 101° and it is supposed to be close to the same today. For here enjoying the cooler weather. When it is below 105° our swamp cooler works just fine and it is nice to use it instead of the refrigeration unit and get some fresh air into the house.
Fires are the big items in the news right now. There is a fire in the local mountains close to where I used to live and it destroyed the whole town that was an historic old mining town that was big back in the 1800s and was the County seat back then. It had a museum that was destroyed and was really neat to visit.  Sad that the history has been wiped out.  The largest fire is in Northern California and is over 350,000 acres with many homes and buildings destroyed.  At last reporting it is only 12% contained and one of the largest fires in the State history.  Right now there are 90 wild fires going on in the State.

[bigskygal]

So sad! My first thought was Bodie but after a quick google saw it was Havilah further south. It is always a real shame when history like that is destroyed! We lost a historical lodge outside of Glacier Park a few years back in a huge fire here. I guess the only saving grace in this time, is that many/most of these places have been documented in photos and film at least those remain. Where in the past it was all just lost.

[skb]

Fires are the big items in the news right now. There is a fire in the local mountains close to where I used to live and it destroyed the whole town that was an historic old mining town that was big back in the 1800s and was the County seat back then. It had a museum that was destroyed and was really neat to visit.  Sad that the history has been wiped out.  The largest fire is in Northern California and is over 350,000 acres with many homes and buildings destroyed.  At last reporting it is only 12% contained and one of the largest fires in the State history.  Right now there are 90 wild fires going on in the State.

I have been reading about the fires. I'm wondering if this is an annual event can't some steps be taken to ensure safety of the populated areas.

[bigskygal]

Unfortunately, these fires are an annual Summer event. They are a necessary part of the ecology. Some trees/plants actually need fire to reproduce. It depends partly on how wet the Spring is and how much grass/weeds are out there. And sadly the stupidity of people that don't take precautions with their use of fire in the open. And of course severe storms in the Summer when everything has dried out can cause many fires. Right now we hav 56 fires burning in MT, 11 started in the last 24 hrs. This year there have already been 1104 fires, 25 started this week (thanks to the storm last Wed.).

As long as the fires burn in wilderness areas, they are controlled/monitored and many left to just burn out on their own, or when the Fall rains start.  A problem is so many more people are building out into the wilderness area which put them at risk if fire comes. Then firefighters have to work extra hard to save structures.

The Forestry dept. does controlled burns in the Spring in the forests trying to keep the underbrush down as much as possible, but it is an ongoing task that can never be truly completed. And people have a chance to burn on their properties to keep them clear. But once a fire starts it is going to do what the weather pushes it to do and when many break out at once, fire fighting resources are stretched pretty thin.

The western states are very dry in the Summer. There isn't much rain at all, not like the humidity of the eastern states with rain and dampness all summer long. We are bone dry out here. That is just is the way it is and fires are basically a "season" here like Winter, Summer, etc.

I'm sure I've missed some points...my brain is ready for bed. Wally can fill in what I've missed as we both go through the fire season where we live.

[bigskygal]

126 this morning.

Yesterday's high was 82° and very smoky with some showers overnight. Today's forecast is 73°/51° cloudy with some showers in the morning. The rain was/is going to be very light so I don't know if it will have much impact on the fires. Hopefully between the cooler temps/clouds/showers it will help controlling the fires.

[walkerwally1]

103 this morning. Our high yesterday was 102° and it should be the same today. It looks like we will be around this for the next few days so that is good.
Yeah Barbara you have it pretty well covered.  Wild fires are a way of life in the West and people that live in the areas that are prone to these events need to be prepared for them.  There is a lot of things that can be done to make the property safer from fire damage but when there is a dry Summer which is normal and high winds the fires are so big that they just rage on through everything. Even Canada is having major fires, here is a map of the fires right now and another of what is left of Havilah :
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[bigskygal]

Boy that map really brings home the difference between the Western states and the middle and Eastern states fire-wise! I live in that band of fire on the Western MT state line.

Along with forest fires we do have earthquakes, but those middle and Eastern states have their hurricanes and tornados so it is a trade off I suppose...

[skb]

Along with forest fires we do have earthquakes, but those middle and Eastern states have their hurricanes and tornados so it is a trade off I suppose...

Yup. Here it is rainfall, floods and landslides. Mumbai is close to the edge of the tectonic plate and does have the possibility of earthquakes, but they are not very frequent.

[bigskygal]

116 this morning.

70° was the high yesterday. It rained on and off all morning then cloudy rest of the day. By evening the sun came out and the air was clear for the first time in days. Today's forecast is 88°/52° and sunny. We are heading into another heat wave, just hope no lightening involved this time around!

[walkerwally1]

87 this morning. Our high was 102° and it is going to start warming up now and we will be back to nearing the 110° mark so the swamp cooler will not do the job so back to the refrigeration unit. 
Nothing on my schedule for today but maybe some cleaning and straightening up.