How dry is it?

Paul Meisenheimer

Paul Meisenheimer

Well-known member
Supporter
You may have heard about the huge wildfire in Northern Alberta and all the homes and forest lost. It is also impacting the duck breeding habitat in a major way. Alberta and Saskatchewan are so dry that sloughs and potholes that held water until August last year are already dry. The ponds that have good water are full of birds as they concentrate in places they can nest. I expect this will be a terrible year for the hatch as poor conditions and heavy predation take their toll. Time will tell.

What are the biologists hearing?

This map of the fire danger will give you an idea of how dry it is across the prairies and into the boreal forest.


View attachment fire.jpg

Here is a link to an article about the big fire north of here.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/alberta-wildfire-science-background-1.3565932
 
Thanks for posting this, Paul. Hopefully all those hard working crews will get this monster of a fire under control. To think that this fire started all most like an explosion and as of yesterday it grown to over 330 square miles. Fires of that size are hard to comprehend. I would imagine it was creating its own weather system, also. One thing that really shocked me was that last night's temperature in that region dropped to only 61F. I am only guessing but would imagine that the night time temps should be dropping in the 30sF. Not a good recipe.

I, too, will be interested in what the waterfowl biologists have to say about nesting conditions. We get a lot of ducks from the southeastern sections of Alberta.

That map tells a lot about the dangers that exist. Let's hope and pray for rain.
Al
 
Worst conditions in many years is what I think based on all the sources I look at. Definitely not good news for ducks. Or the people caught in the fires
Stay safe Paul!
 
time for a rain dance!
Click to expand...

I've been working at it Tod and we even got a little bit yesterday. I think I might need to enlist some help for the amount we need. Know any dancers?
Click to expand...

I think if you posted pictures of you dancing - that would help! :).
 
Hi Paul listened to your Rain Dance in hopes of giving support to the people up by you and our feathered friends. I'm not sure whats going on with our weather patterns but after last years hunts on Long Island it seems something is definitely off and causing these crazy swings and conditions. I only hope that people up there will be spared as little as possible of the brunt of this massive fire but it doesn't appear to be happening.
 
That is a biggie, with lots of folks displaced. Thoughts and prayers off the those in Alberta--We in Delaware would be more than happy to share rain right now!!
 
Hi Paul listened to your Rain Dance in hopes of giving support to the people up by you and our feathered friends. I'm not sure whats going on with our weather patterns but after last years hunts on Long Island it seems something is definitely off and causing these crazy swings and conditions. I only hope that people up there will be spared as little as possible of the brunt of this massive fire but it doesn't appear to be happening.
Click to expand...

The company I work for has about 300 employees in the area, 108 of whom work in the same division as me. Of the 108 employees we have confirmed that 12 have lost their homes. Most of the others simply don't know. It is a massive catastrophe that is hard to fathom. The impact is so large that economists say it will actually affect the economic growth of Canada. They are talking about insurance claims in the range of $9 Billion so far and an area burned that is roughly 1000 sq. km.

I received this picture that a colleague took as he left work to evacuate.

View attachment FtMac.jpg
 
Last edited:
That's terrible. I hope everyone can at least stay safe.

Overnight we had some NW wind that brought in some of the smoke. This is about as bad as I can remember wildfire smoke being here in SE SD. It has cut visibility way down and the smell of smoke is heavy. Its amazing how large the fire has to be to be reaching us this far away. We didn't get this much from the OK/KS grass fires this spring.

Tim
 
Spooky picture. I know the fires I've been around gave me the willies and my house was not in danger! Sure would love to live in the mountains one day, though.

Hang in there and keep dancing!
 
Spooky picture. I know the fires I've been around gave me the willies and my house was not in danger! Sure would love to live in the mountains one day, though.

Hang in there and keep dancing!
Click to expand...

The really spooky part is that the picture was taken at 3 in the afternoon. It looks like evening.

The fire is still burning out of control but is moving away from any developed areas.

Still dancing!
 
It's hard to image the magnitude of this fire. Although this fire is about 1800 miles northwest from here it appeared to be foggy this morning due to smoke. The air quality in NW Iowa was very poor. The smell of smoke was strong enough that it woke me up early this morning and my first thought was something was burning nearby. Although the air quality at ground level improved during the day, tonight's sunset showed how much smoke remains in the upper atmosphere. We had similar air quality issues here last year due to fires in Manitoba as well as when St. Helens erupted and when Yellowstone burned. This fire appears to be of the magnitude of those disasters.
 
I'll echo some of Steve's thoughts. I've been out of contact the last few days except to speak over the phone with my wife and she mentioned the fires. Well this morning at sunrise, in extreme NE Iowa, I could see a haze and smell the "wood burning" smell.

I feel extremely sorry for all those whom have lost homes or even worse, my thoughts and prayers to all.
 
We may need to call up Steve Sutton and Bill Wasson. Break out the old oak stump and buck skins and do a proper Druid rainmaker dance.


Nate
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top