agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2023-08-22 01:38 pm
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Climate Change and Canada Burning.

I've been anxious about climate change for a long time, but just like everyone else, I thought we had more time to organize our response. I also thought, in a slightly joking way, that as the climate warmed, Canadians could just move North to the cooler parts of our usually frozen country. I thought it was unfortunate that trees and stuff couldn't move fast enough to get to the cooler areas, but I certainly thought the cooler areas would be there.

Hah.

As I showed in the previous entry:
https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/usfs/map/#d:2023-08-21..2023-08-22,2023-08-21;[Bad username or site: -83 @ 1],42.8,4.0z
all of Canada is burning. We are rapidly reaching a state where the evacuees have no place to evacuate to.

This past week we experienced some of the drama of the fires. Truly, we have been safe the whole time, but uncertainty has been our companion. We had a close family friend visiting Salmon Arm during the past week. One of the plans was to travel down ("down" map) to Penticton to visit another friend and then put our visitor on the plane in Kelowna on Sunday.

Well. First of all, the night before we were to leave, the McDougal fire to the west of Kelowna and Westbank (now called West Kelowna in a brilliantly original name change), went absolutely ballistic. It travelled up and over the mountain eastward to the homes along the lake, and then embers blew eastward across the lake to the hills westward of Winfield (now brilliantly known as Lake Country), then the new fire travelled up and over the hill towards the Kelowna airport (just past Rutland). This all happened between the evening of Thursday and the morning of Friday. The airport was closed, and the road was restricted to local traffic only.

We cancelled our trip to Penticton, and our visitor changed his flight to leave out of Kamloops ("up" map) on Sunday. Then between Friday morning and Friday night, the Adam's Lake fire went ballistic. Two fires merged near the mouth of the Adams river and then raced eastward along the shore of Shuswap Lake, and at the same time raced southward through Squilax and jumped across the lake to Sorrento, raced southward up the hill towards Notch Hill, and then jumped from peak to peak to Black Mountain and started down the hill eastwards towards Tappen. The Fire Service said the fire travelled 20 kilometers in 12 hours.

This caused the TransCanada Highway ("Number One") to be closed to all traffic at Sorrento, which meant that the regular route to Kamloops was not available. Considering that things were changing by the minute, Mom and our visitor left Saturday morning to travel by the Falkland route to Kamloops (through Silver Creek and other back roads - an extra hour to two hours). Mom said the road was packed. They spent the night in Kamloops and our visitor made his flight on Sunday morning. We have since had confirmation that he made it home. *whew*

Both fires have continued to be held at these locations, but we certainly couldn't know that they would be while everything was so fluid.

During all this the smoke has been hostile.

Sunday/Monday the remnants of Hurricane Hillary made it up here, but it was mostly lightning and very little rain. It has really been the smoke that has shielded us from the heat of the sun, which makes the temperatures better for fire fighting, but worse for visibility, so no water bombing. We have several new fires from lightning strikes.
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2023-08-22 01:24 pm
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As you know, Bob ...

... British Columbia is burning.

I wish to confirm that I am safe, and that I have not been in any danger whatsoever.

But that doesn't mean I'm not living in interesting times.

This shows everything everywhere all at once, in BC:
https://wildfiresituation.nrs.gov.bc.ca/map

but I must say that navigating that is a pain in the tush.

This is something that can show the whole world:
https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/usfs/map/#d:24hrs;[profile] _100,40.0,4.0z

(Huh. I swear I used that to view other parts of the world than just North America, but it doesn't seem to allow that today, so sorry about that. What is does show is that all of Canada is burning. Argh.)

It is based on satellite data, which is updated usually not more than twice a day. It is also based on infrared, which means that hot smoke shows as well as actual flames and smoldering fuel.

The most accurate evacuation order/alert information about the fire closest to me is this:
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/a5a71009863947d3b1c77792afefe1a5?fbclid=IwAR2Ev-97Eu2THqmY7aAfyS7Uw-F3169jsbHOHVTo72aDozhqqAwxd_eX5RE
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-08-23 12:46 pm
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Another quick season change.

This Spring didn't really happen. We went from dregs of Winter to full-on Summer almost overnight. Last night I put on the furnace because it was already down to 11C - and it dropped all the way to 7C in the early hours. I think we're not really going to have Fall, as such.

Which, anything that tamps down the fires is absolutely welcome, but I miss the transition periods, especially Fall, because it is my favourite. We'll see how it goes.

Here's a website showing how things are burning in BC:

https://governmentofbc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/f0ac328d88c74d07aa2ee385abe2a41b

Oy.
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-08-19 05:43 pm
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Update on the hunters.

So, I left the doors and windows open again last night, and something else snuck in and regretted its impulse.

Actually, to start with, I cleaned up barfed mouse, so there was that.

Then in the middle of last night, I woke up to Suzi chasing something around and growling. I think she was growling to keep Maggie away. She was so focused on her growling that she actually did one of those backward snorts as she drew breath to continue growling.

I went back to sleep (I never let any blankets/sheets/whathaveyou hang over the edge of the bed, so the likelihood of the chase crossing my face is slim). I woke up this morning to Maggie being sent off with a flea in her ear by Suzi who thought she had cornered something in the cold room.

So far no barfed mouse. There has been enthusiastic paint removal where they *think* the mouse may have gone.

The air is still so nice that I am going to chance the doors and windows again. ;)
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-08-18 10:54 am
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Rain. Beautiful, beautiful rain.

Starting Monday afternoon, it rained. And it rained often during the night. Yesterday was completely clear with rainclouds in the sky drifting past us. I left the house open all day and all night. It is still clear today. It smells great. Mmmmm.

In other news, something squeezed in under a door somewhere, and then regretted their impulse. So. Not only can I sleep through lawn mowing under my window and etc, I can sleep through cats hunting enthusiastically behind the bookcase under that same window.
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-08-08 12:54 am
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Brief blue sky this evening.

It had puffy (ish) clouds in it, too.

Today there was some rain, but nothing that will make any difference.
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-08-06 11:51 am
Entry tags:

Fire getting closer - rain no help at all.

This page shows the fires in BC:
https://governmentofbc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/f0ac328d88c74d07aa2ee385abe2a41b

If you zoom in on the area a little east of Kamloops, you can see Salmon Arm, where I live. You will see that the White Rock Lake fire is huge and growing. The big ragged red area is the fire's footprint. The red boxy areas are those under evacuation order (people must leave). The orange boxy areas are those under evacuation alert (be ready to go at a moment's notice). You'll notice that the evacuation alert has nearly wrapped its arms around Salmon Arm.

The boxy nature of the orders and alerts is because they are based on electoral districts. While not a perfect match to the randomness of nature, there are already communication structures in place that serve the election process which can be repurposed for fire information.

We just had a little cloudburst of rain that barely dampened the asphalt of my driveway.
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-07-29 11:46 pm

Kicked Ant Hill

Traffic is very weird right now.

There's been lots of smoke, and ash, and this weekend is a long weekend, but the traffic is absolutely bonkers and cranky and dangerous right now. There's lots and it's all hostile.
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-07-27 11:31 am
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Ash is falling.

It behaves a bit like snow coming down. I'm not quite sure which fire is producing this ash, but my guess would be the White Rock Lake fire (not in the lower mainland, but in the interior). The leading edge is towards us, so that is probably the prevailing wind.
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-07-20 09:34 pm
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Firesmoke.ca

This website predicts the smoke flow from all the wildfires:
https://firesmoke.ca/

It is focused on Canada, but it shows most of the USA, too.

Only the middle of July - still August to go.
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-07-19 11:24 pm
Entry tags:

Sun like a burning penny

We had a much smokier day two days ago - from the top of Tank Hill you couldn't see the valley bottom, the Fly Hills, or the lake. Today the mountains were mysteries in the haze - something was there. But the sun was shining like a red-hot ingot through the haze, about as big as a penny held at arm's length (I have short arms).

This whole metaphor has led me into areas I don't know how to solve: pennies should be copper. Does copper glow red-hot the way iron does? Or does it go straight through to white? Since pennies aren't copper anymore, would they ever reach red-hot, or do they just burn up the way slag metal is supposed to?

Anyways. It was an amazingly red red-hot burning penny this evening, late in the sky.
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2021-07-14 08:23 pm
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Grudgingly mollified

Kinda. Sorta.

Dr. called. Things found so far are not worrying. More things need to be cultured, and I get to call the same hospital switchboard again on Friday at noon.

Very smoky here. There are fires everywhere.

If you want to keep up with BC fires only, there's this:
https://governmentofbc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/f0ac328d88c74d07aa2ee385abe2a41b
agoodwinsmith: (Default)
2020-09-14 01:05 pm
Entry tags:

FireSmoke.ca

There is a website that has a smoke prediction animation:

http://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/

Here's the site's home:

https://firesmoke.ca/

Aside from us having smoke, I see that the USA is burning everywhere. West coast the worst, yes, but there are 20 down near Houston. Oh my goddess.