Feds Arrests Firefighters Battling Washington State Wildfire As Immigration Crackdown Goes Wild

Federal law enforcement detains firefighters trying
to battle a Washington State wildfire. They
ended up arresting two of them. 

 The biggest wildfire now burning in Washington State is now short two firefighters for an infuriating reason.   

That reason is the Trump administration will go to any length to arrest and deport anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. 

Even if it disrupts heroic battles against dangerous wildfires. .

Per the New Republic

"On Wednesday morning, two different crews of firefighters were cutting wood while waiting for their superior to arrive when Customs and Border Patrol agents showed up in 'Police' vests. The federal agents made the entire crew line up and show ID, eventually detaining the two firefighters without giving them a chance to say goodbye to their fellow crew members and loved ones."

The Seattle Times broke the story, which spurred a fair amount of outrage among residents and lawmakers from Washington.  

The Times spoke to multiple firefighters anonymously. They did so for the sad reason so many are resorting to that type of anonymity. In likely violation of the First Amendment, the Trump administration retaliates against anyone who doesn't praise the Orange God to the high heavens. 

A lot of things were unusual and alarming about this whole thing, not just the fear of retribution. For one, why were agents heading out to an active wildfire, in a remote location like Bear Gulch to make arrests?

One of the firefighters told the newspaper that members of the crew were told not to take video of the incident. To their credit and bravery, some took video and photos anyway. 

Video and photos supplied to the Seattle Times by the firefighters show them in their gear sitting on logs, with federal officers watching them. Also in these images, ".... a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle is parked nearby. Officers wearing 'Police' vests are seen arresting a firefighter, while another appears to be restrained."

One firefighter was quoted:  'I asked them if his (family) can say goodbye to him because they're family, and they're just ripping them way,' another firefighter told the Times. 'And this is what he said: 'You need to get the (expletive) out of here. I'm gonna make you leave."

Government agencies were as vague as they usually are under the Trump administration when it came to explaining the arrests. 

According to The Guardian, the U.S. Border Patrol said it assisted the Bureau of Land Management after that agency asked for help after ending contracts with two companies following a criminal investigation. 

No information was provided on the details of that criminal investigation. Federal agents said they identified two people "present in the United States illegally," according to a Border Patrol statement. 

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington condemned the arrests at the wildfire site. "We count on our brave firefighters, who put their lives on the line, to keep our communities safe - this new Republican policy to detain firefighters on the job is as immoral as it is dangerous," she said. "What's next? Will Trump start detaining immigrant service members? Or will he just maintain his current policy of deporting Purple Heart veterans?"

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who also condemned the arrests,  posted on social media that one of the arrested firefighters was from Oregon, The man is represented by lawyers from the non-profit Innovation Law Lab, who said the firefighter was unlawfully detained, the Associated Press reported. 

True to form the U.S. government has "disappeared" the firefighter, at least for now. Lawyer from Innovation Law Lab can't find him even though he should be entitled to legal representation. "We demand that they allow him to access counsel as is his right afforded by the U.S. Constitution," lawyer Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega said in an email

Good luck with that. The only part of the Constitution the Trump administration seems willing to obey is the Second, the one involving guns. 

The Bear Gulch Fire, as this blaze is called, has burned about 14 square miles in the Olympic National Forest. Oddly hot, dry weather in the region has allowed the fire to rage for days.  It was about 13 percent contained as of Thursday afternoon.

No thanks to the Trumpers as to whatever level of containment has been managed so far.   

Stepping Down Unevenly Into Cooler Vermont/New England Weather Pattern. Drought Continues

A hazy sun sets over St. Albans, Vermont Wednesday.
It was the last time until next spring the sun set at or 
later than 8 p.m. True to the season, cooler 
weather is due by next week. 

 If you don't like hot weather, the good news is you probably won't see anything like the heat we've seen in the past few days until next summer.  

It's getting toward the back half of August. Things will start to cool. We'll probably have more hot weather, but nothing like the mid and even upper 90s we saw this week. 

WEDNESDAY EXPLAINED

The beginning of the end of the heat came yesterday with the arrival of showers and thunderstorms. 

I got a little smug yesterday morning with my surprise and delight over some early morning showers here in St. Albans, Vermont but the joke was on me.  

That was pretty much it for me with the rain. St. Albans received 0.23 inches, with nothing coming down after noon. 

The showers in far northwest Vermont kept the skies cloudy and cooler much of the day and stabilized the atmosphere. It only got to 87 degrees in Burlington and 81 in Highgate. So no new showers developed during the day much north of Route 2.

Elsewhere in Vermont, Wednesday was another hot one. St. Johnsbury set a record high for the date with 95 degrees. Springfield made it to 94 degrees. Montpelier got to 90, missing the record high for the date by just one degree. 

Unlike in far northern Vermont, the heat allowed widespread showers and storms to develop, though most places had unimpressive amounts of rain. Burlington had about a third of an inch, which ended an unprecedented dry spell for August. It was the first time on record the first 12 days of the month were rain free. 

Elsewhere yesterday,  Montpelier managed to see a quarter inch of rain, and Springfield a half inch. St. Johnsbury could only muster 0.15 inches. 

Wednesday also proved you can get a flood alert in a drought. 

An area around Londonderry, Bellows Falls, Windham and some other communities in southeast Vermont were socked by storms that dumped up to around three inches of rain in a short period of time. The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for that area for a time late Wednesday afternoon.

DROUGHT REMAINS

Wednesday's rain was not nearly enough to quench our thirst, and mostly dry weather looms.  But at least there's a little precipitation in the forecast.

Today is starting out muggy.  One weak cold front came through, another boundary temporarily stalled in northern New York. Neither front was enough to push the humidity that built up yesterday out.

A third cold front today will do the job. This last front is weak, and will produce at most isolated showers. But it will flush the humidity out. You'll notice the change in the air this afternoon. The decrease in humidity will be nice, but it will come with some wildfire smoke again. Can't escape that! 

The drier air means you'll sleep better tonight.  Dry air allows temperatures at night to cool rapidly, especially if skies are clear. That'll be the case, so expect lows to drop into the comfortable 50s.

Friday will also be a nice summer day with sunshine and highs hitting the low 80s. After a fairly comfortable Friday night, a brief squirt of hot, dry air will work in Saturday. Some of us could get to 90 again. The humidity will stay low, so the drying ground and fire danger will continue. 

The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor is released every Thursday. I'll file a report in this blog thingy after it comes out later today. It will be interesting to see how much worse things got in Vermont after what I'm calling Vermont's Death Valley Week. That hot, arid air was something!

"FAIR WEATHER" COMING

Next week, right on schedule we'll enter what I call "Fair Weather." Not "fair" as in fair skies, though we'll probably have plenty of that. But in Vermont, "Fair Weather" is the not quite summer, not quite fall type weather you at least used to see in late August and the opening days of September. 

That's when most of the county and local fairs come through the Green Mountain State.  Traditionally, the weather during these events is cooler than what you endure in high summer, but warmer than the crisp air you'd expect once we really get into fall.

Due to climate change, "Fair Weather" has not been happening as much in late August in the past decade or two.  Instead, it's been staying hot. So this year might be a nice throwback to tradition. 

A cold front Sunday will throw some showers our way, but it won't rain all day.  Next week will feature highs mostly in the low 70s north to mid and upper 70s Champlain Valley and south. Lows will get into the upper 40s, low 50s, that kind of neighborhood.

It's hard to tease out exactly what each day next week will be like this far in advance.  Weak disturbances could generate a little rain on one or two days, but the dry northwest flow will probably prevent any of the real soakers we need.

But I think we're now past the truly hot part of summer. 

Hawaii Second Anniversary Of Deadly Wildfire: Slow Recovery In Destroyed Lahaina

A sign of hope in Lahaina, Hawaii,
destroyed by a deadly wildfire on 
this date in 2023 Top photo is the
badly scorched enormous banyan
tree in Lahaina immediately after
the fire. Bottom photo is what the
rejuvenated tree looks like now,

 Two years ago today, one of the worst wildfires in U.S. history hit in and around Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. It killed 102 people, destroyed more than 2,200 structures and caused $5.5 billion in damage. 

It laid to waste a historic tourist city, and it's still just starting to try to bounce back. 

The tragedy is another cautionary tale -  much like the slow fire recovery in destroyed towns like Paradise, California -  that tells us once a community burns down in a wildfire, the comeback is incredibly slow. 

Even worse, the same places burned in previous wildfires are at risk for getting hit again. 

DIFFICULT RECOVERY

The lead paragraphs in an August 5 Hawaii Public Radio piece tells the continued sad story:

"Two years after the fire, Maui survivors still face challenges with housing, insurance, FEMA assistance, building permits and a laundry list of other obstacles. Under the surface, many survivors are mentally struggling right now - and they're not alone."

The University of Hawaii's Maui Wildlife Exposure Study says almost half the adults in their mental health research said almost half of the adults are still living in temporary housing and a quarter remain unemployed despite trying to find work. 

Home rebuilding is only now getting under way in Lahaina. Hawaii Public Radio says hundreds of homes are now under construction, but only 45 have been completed so far. An additional 450 building permits have been issued, and more than 300 are being processed.

The time consuming process of rebuilding is expensive. Many are still paying a mortgage on their destroyed homes, and simultaneously paying rent elsewhere.   Here's an example Hawaii Public Radio provides:

"Fire survivor Jeremy DelosReyes and his wife, Gracie, have poured the cement foundation of their new home He's constructing their own rebuild, but it's been a financial struggle - and they didn't qualify for FEMA assistance.

'I had a 2,200 square foot house.... At $500 a square foot, my house is going to cost me $1.2 million. I have $400,000 of insurance. I pay $4,000 a month in rent. I got to come up with $6,000 just to cover my mortgage and rent.'"

Lahaina residents are also trying to build more fire-resistant houses, which are more expensive that older styles. For instance. a metal roof could cost $30,000 more than older style roofs, 

The main business district on Front Street was obliterated in the fire. The debris was cleaned up, and then.....nothing.  The future of that area of Lahaina is still up in the air. 

The wildfire claimed about 800 business and 7,000 jobs. Only one business has reopened: The Hi Surf Club Maui, operating out of donated van where the original building once stood on Breakwall Beach, according to KHON.

The shell of the building that used to house Fleetwood's On Front Street, s a popular restaurant owned by Fleetwood Mac found Mick Fleetwood, recently announced they plan to rebuild and reopen in 2026.

NEW FIRE SCARE

I imagine pretty much everyone in Lahaina still has PTSD from that fire. So it had to be frightening when a new wildfire broke out Monday near Lahaina. 

It spread over hills around Kaanapali, about two miles north of Lahaina, closing down a highway and forcing about 50 people to evacuate. 

Unlike the tragedy of 2023, this time, firefighters gained the upper hand and extinguished the fire with any homes being lost. The fire did burn through 33 acres. 

BANYAN TREE

One of the biggest potential losses in Lahaina during the fire was an immense banyan tree that was left entire blackened and scorched in the fire. 

The historic tree was planted by Sheriff William Owen Smith in 1873 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant missionaries in Lahaina..

Immediately after the fire, arborists examine the tree determined much of it could be saved with a lot to TLC.

The result, two years after the fire, is a thriving banyan tree, as KHON tells us: 

"'It's really, really healthy,' explained Duane Parkman, arborist committee chair and Treecovery Lahaina president. 'We're super stoked to see as much growth as we've seen in the past year and a half. We've seen aerial roots coming down from almost 20 feet high, and they're almost touching the ground already. There's so much fruit - it's become a habitat again. It's a thriving tree system."

The tree isn't open to the public yet, as some branches are still unstable, but they'll strengthen up. Replacement benches are being replaced beneath the tree. The banyan is the Lahaina gathering place, especially since it's about ten degrees cooler beneath the tree than elsewhere under the hot Hawaiian sun. 

The hope is the banyan, the centerpiece of Lahaina, is a premonition of a future town - one that might be a lot different than the old one, but thriving anyway. 

 

Smoke Continues To Sting Vermont, And Many Other Areas As Heat Wave (Eventually) Looms

Visible satellite photo from Monday afternoon showed
most of the wildfire smoke sandwiched between a weak
cold front in southern Quebec and another weak
front in Pennsylvania. That milkiness in the image
between those two cloud bands is smoke. 

 The wildfire smoke goes on and on here in Vermont and in much of the United States and southern Canada, and we're still choking this morning. 

The air quality alert persists in the Green Mountain State through midnight tonight. Other areas around the Great Lakes, the Northeast, parts of Texas, and of course Canada also remain under these alerts. 

Writing in Facebook, WCAX-TV meteorologist Gunnar Consul said the air quality index in Burlington was reported as low as 141 Monday, the second worst this year and the fifth worst on record since 2000. 

Spending four hours outdoors Monday in Vermont was the equivalent of smoking half a cigarette, Consul wrote.  

The smoke is still around today, and will be for awhile yet. 

A weak cold front has temporarily improved the air quality right along the Canadian border early this morning, where the air quality was regarded as "moderate."  And I mean right along and north of the border. Outside my St. Albans house, 15 or so miles south of the border, it was still awfully hazy out as I wrote this around 7 a.m. today. 

Elsewhere in and near Vermont, it was still "unhealthy for sensitive groups."

VERMONT FORECAST

The air will stay bad region wide today and tomorrow. For now, there' s no new smoke blowing in from Canada. But the air that's over us isn't going anywhere. The air will very slowly improve over the next two or three days only because all those tiny smoke particles that are getting in our lungs are slowly falling out of the sky.  There is no wind to push the smoky air away. 

We're in kind of a  holding pattern while strong high pressure pretty much stalls over Quebec and New England through Thursday. 

Aside from the smoke, this weirdly strong for August high pressure system has kept temperatures around here  pretty comfortable. Readings for the past few days have been close to normal for this time of year and will pretty much remain that way through Thursday. 

Reasonable humidity has also allowed nights to cool off comfortably. It was in the 50s to near 60 at dawn again today. Expect the same tomorrow morning and maybe Thursday morning, too.  Today might actually be a couple degrees cooler than the low 80s we saw Monday. 

That very weak cold front that staggered unnoticed into Vermont yesterday is still around and fading. Its remnants and a bit of atmospheric moisture that found its way in from the Atlantic Ocean means there should be a few widely scattered showers and garden variety thunderstorms every afternoon today through Thursday.

We could all use the rain, but the vast majority of us will get nothing. A very few lucky devils, especially near the Green Mountains of Vermont, White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Adirondacks could get a brief downpour. A few more of us could see sprinkles from dying showers moving off the mountains. 

Overall, though, the rather high forest fire danger will continue on.

LATE WEEK/WEEKEND

That strong high pressure that's hanging around us will move offshore by the end of the week. That opens the door to a blast of hot air that will come in from the southwest. Temperatures could flirt with 90 degrees Friday in the warmest valleys. 

Ninety degree temperatures look even more widespread Saturday, Sunday and probably Monday. If anything, that high pressure will strengthen further, which would mostly shut off any chances of scattered showers and storms, despite slowly increasing humidity. 

The next chance of rain at all looks to be next Tuesday.  The forecast could change, but I'm not impressed by what's coming Tuesday, so I don't expect a lot of rain. I'm also doubting that thing on Tuesday will cool us off all that much.  

Paradise Lost And Found? Struggles Five Years Since Deadly Fire Wiped Out California Town

Five years after a deadly wildfire destroyed the town of
Paradise, California, the town is still rebuilding, but is
facing financial and insurance headwinds. 

 Hard to believe but it's been five years this week since one of the worst wildfires in U.S. history destroyed the town of Paradise, California, claiming 85 lives.  

In just a day or so, the fire leveled almost every house and business in town.- about 18,000 of them.  You still might remember horrifying videos from that day of people desperately trying to drive through flames and zero-visibility smoke to escape the conflagration. 

So how's the town doing now?

It is bouncing back, but it's also a grim reminder of how long it takes to recover from a mega-disaster like this. That fact has resonance here in Vermont, as we continue to recover from the dramatic, highly destructive floods we had this summer. 

In the age of climate change, these weather disasters are coming at us much more frequently than ever before.  We'll have a lot of balls in the air trying to recover from just one disaster. Now imagine how stretched thin emergency managers, insurers, planners, builders, homeowners and business people are. 

In Paradise, California right now, KCRA says 21 percent of the homes have been rebuilt, and another 1,000 or so are under construction. 

Paradise has technically been the fastest growing municipality in California for the past two years. But that's starting from almost zero, and they've reached the peak of the rebuilding effort.

As you can imagine, it's been incredibly expensive. KCRA said the Fire Victim Trust, created in July, 2020, has issued determination notices on 98 percent of claims and has paid $10.7 billion to victims so far. 

The Fire Victim Trust was created by the electric utility PG&E as part of a legal settlement. The utility was blamed for the fire because one of its power lines is believe to have snapped, sparking the blaze on that windy, super dry November 8, 2018.

Many victims are saying the settlements are inadequate and have not allowed them to even partially recover financially from the blaze. 

Even worse, homeowners insurance in Paradise is unaffordable.  This is an increasing problem in disaster-prone areas like Florida. Insurers say they can't keep taking the losses from this increasing onslaught of disasters.  I think any disaster-prone region of the nation is now prone to newly sky high insurance rates, so be forewarned. 

In Paradise, the Associated Press said some homeowners who used to face roughly $1,500 in annual insurance premiums now have $10,000 annual fees. People can't afford that, so they're not rebuilding. Or, if they don't have a mortgage, they're taking their chances and not acquiring homeowners' insurance, which is a really risky move. 

The higher insurance rates are happening despite stringent new building codes to help prevent future disasters. 

A DIFFERENT PARADISE

By necessity, Paradise is shaping up to look a lot different than it did before the fire. 

The town's newspaper, The Paradise Post, announced sweeping building code changes enacted by the Town Council in May, 2022:

"The first change would require that only non-combustible material be allowed within five feet of any building or structure. It would also outlaw any vegetation within five feet of the structure, including the overhang. The ordinance calls for removing any overhanging limbs or branches within five feet of the structure.  It would also regulate all exterior walls to have six inches of noncombustible vertical clearance from grade."

These extensive regulations would also outlaw any vegetation or the storage of combustible material beneath decks and porches. Mesh covering vents in roofs and walls must have openings of an eighth inch or less to prevent embers from slipping into attics. Combustible fencing material must also not come within five feet of a home or building. 

 Paradise officials also are installing 21 warning sirens around town that would serve much like tornado warning sirens in the Midwest, reports Fire Engineering.  Except these sirens will sound a warning, and then be followed by evacuation instructions. That's a quick way to get people heading quickly in the right direction away from danger. 

Fire Engineering compares the new siren system to the chaotic day in 2018 when the wildfire blasted through town. : 

"Many residents said they received no warning on their cellphones or landlines as the fire quickly spread their way. They jumped in their vehicles to escape only after seeing smoke and flames, or after relatives or neighbors knocked on their doors.

'If that fire would have happened just a few hours earlier than it did, we would have had hundreds of people die from that because they'd been in Bed,' (Paradise Mayor Greg ) Bolin said."

Of course, officials have to decide to activate the sirens. During Maui's deadly fires this summer, people report that sirens did not go off.

The long list of fire prevention rules and ordinances in Paradise are starting to be emulated by other wildfire-prone communities. Climate change does seem to be making wildfires, well, wilder. They spread faster, burn hotter, last long and display extreme behavior.  

Like it or not, communities through the United States - throughout the world, really - are all trying to adapt to climate change. We see it again and again.

Few experts think humans can completely adapt ourselves out of the consequences of climate change. There's just too much going on at once. And what's going on is often too extreme to adapt to. Sure, you can enact fire codes that help protect lives and property in big wildfires. But the wildfires are too big for those measures to keep people completely safe. 

We can buy out homes and properties, enlarge culverts and build stronger bridges in places like here in Vermont that are particularly susceptible to floods, but these extreme floods have a tendency to find new victims as the storms get worse and worse. 

It's a race between human engineering and climate change disasters. One that will continue for the foreseeable future. 

Back in Paradise, California, they held a series of events this week to mark the five year anniversary of the firestorm. That included 85 seconds of silence for the 85 victims of the blaze. 

Mercifully, the start of the rainy season has already provided the forests around Paradise a bit of rain. A moderately heavy rain storm is the forecast for the region for this upcoming week. There's no fires burning and the risk of one starting is on the low side. 

It's another reprieve for Paradise. But the town will be tested again with future fires. We hope they'll get through those fine. 

 

If You Need A Small Dose Of Hope, Landmark Maui Banyan Tree, Damaged In Wildfire, Is Sprouting Leaves

New leaves are starting to sprout on a giant banyan tree
on Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. The huge tree was badly damaged
in an August wildfire that destroyed the town. All the leaves
on the trees had been burned off. 

When disaster get extreme, you always want to find some small glimmer of hope. 

Such is the case in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. The city was pretty much destroyed by an August wildfire, which killed at least 97 people. In the center of town is an enormous banyan tree, the largest in the United States. 

The tree was badly burned and scorched in the fire, losing all of its leaves. Many wonder whether it will survive. 

The Washington Post gives us that glimmer of hope: They report it is sprouting a few fresh green leaves. 

As WaPo reports:

"Volunteers have been working toward the banyan's recovery for weeks, carefully tending to its soil, monitoring it for sigs of growth and providing it with what they call 'tree-loving soup' Hawaii Magazine reported earlier this month". 

I guess if you're sick, chicken soup is the cure. If a banyan tree is badly damaged in a fire, it needs nourishing soup, too. The soup for the banyan tree is a concoction of nutrients landscape contractor Chris Imonti created to feed the huge, hurting tree. 

The banyan was planted in 1873 to mark the 50th anniversary old the first Protestant mission in Lahaina. 

I hope to see photos of this Maui treasure fully leafed out in the months ahead.  

As If Deadly Wildfire Not Enough; Maui Faces Land Grabbers, Conspiracy Theorists

Aerial view of a neighborhood destroyed by the
deadly wildfire in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. Land 
speculators are already contacting victims in
attempts to buy land at cut rate prices 
as an "investment opportunity."

While good people reach out to help the people of Maui begin to recover from the wildfire that killed at least 106 victims, there's always a few bad apples who try, through personal greed or delusions, to make matters worse.   

On top of everything else, Maui is facing people trying to make a quick buck, some by running real estate scams, others by seeking clicks on social media through dubious conspiracy theories.

REAL ESTATE "OPPORTUNITY"

When most people look at the Maui calamity, they see a tragic disaster.  A few soul-less people apparently see it as an exciting investment opportunity. 

As ABC News reports:

"Local officials say outsiders are attempting to take advantage of the tragedy by attempting to purchase damaged home sites from locals who have lost everything. 

Officials expressed concern that residents are being approached about selling residential sites 'by people posing as real estate agents who may have ill intent.'"

Hawaii has the highest housing costs in America, which makes it incredibly difficult for middle income people to buy homes in the best of times. Now, the housing crisis on Maui has gotten exponentially worse. 

Which means if a real estate investor can get their hands on any land in Hawaii, they'll make a killing. 

Even so-called "legitimate" real estate moguls are literally swooping down on the wreckage in Maui like vultures, trying to make a quick buck.

According to the Independent:

"While thousands of people living on the islands are trying to recover and find shelter, investors see an opportunity. In a video posted to Instagrams member of the nonprofit organization Kako'o Haleakala claimed land investors were already calling Lahaina residents who lost their homes, offering to buy their land." 

The Independent noted in was unclear which investors or realtors the Instagram post referred to. 

USA Today has reported on the same issue.  They report:

"Mark Stefl, 67, said he, too, has been approached by developers, and the offer felt like being kicked while he was down."   

This isn't a new phenomenon. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, real estate "investors" swooped into New Orleans to snap up damaged property at bargain basement prices, The same thing happened after western wildfires.

While it is certainly perfectly legal for property owners to sell their land as they choose, these real estate vultures seek to catch people when they are vulnerable in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. This would be at a time that these property owners would understandably find it difficult to make rational decisions.

The real estate vultures know this, and would end up "negotiating" a purchase that leaves the seller with much less money than if they sold under normal circumstances. To be blunt, it's a total ripoff. 

Against this backdrop, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said he's is consulting with the state's attorney general to see if they can place a moratorium on any sale of properties that were damaged or destroyed.

CONSPIRACY WHACKOS

Every time a wildfire or something like this happens, the idiots come out of the woodwork to explain this is all a government plot to do...... I'm not sure. 

In the Maui case, people are posting old photos of events that sort of, kinda look like laser beams setting off explosive fires. 

Contrary to what conspiracy theorists would
have you believe, this is not a energy
weapon starting Maui on fire. It's a refinery
flare creating a light pillar in frigid 
winter air back in 2018.

The most popular conspiracy theory is related to the real estate stuff I cited above.  The whack jobs say the real estate moguls and the "elite" in cooperation with the government, set these fires to allow the rich to conduct a land grab.

As you can see by what I wrote above, it doesn't look like real estate "investors" need expensive government equipment to try and make land grabs. All they  have to do is call or email victims in their attempts. 

The Associated Press offers us some examples of how people use real photos from unrelated events to "prove" their conspiracy.

One photo shows a distant fire with a beam reaching into the sky over it. The wackos say that's another example of the government for some reason launching fiery attacks using weaponized weather modification tactics on Maui. 

The photo is real, the context is not.  The photo actually shows a controlled burn at an Ohio refinery back in 2018. The beam of light is caused by ice crystals in the air creating the beam above the fire, which occurred in the middle of winter. 

Another image supposedly showing another example of the "government weapon" in Hawaii is just a photo of a Chilean electrical transformer exploding during high winds several years ago.  Yet another photo is just an image taken from SpaceX's Instagram account of a 2018 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in California, notes the Associated Press.  

Of course, my words here will do absolutely zero to discourage the conspiracy theories. I only write about it to say buyer beware. And OK, to mock the conspiracists a little bit.  

Hawaii Firestorm Kills Dozens; Drought, Hurricane, And Likely Climate Change Implicated

Wildfire destroying historic Front Steet in Lahaina, Maui,
Hawaii on Monday. Video still from Alan Dicker 

It was about as intense and sad a tragedy and disaster as you can get.

A huge wildfire raced into a historic town so quickly that many couldn't escape. A few that did escape had to jump into waterways to do it.  

Rows of buildings that stood for a century or more were razed.  Even the 911 system failed in the firestorm.  At least 55 people have died, others have been seriously injured. The death toll is expected to rise. 

This scenario is something you might unfortunately see in the western United States or Canada, or maybe Australia or Greece. But, as you probably heard on the news, the latest place to see this kind of wildfire tragedy is Hawaii.

The wildfire raced through parts of Maui, devastating what was the charming town of Lahaina.

What happened in Hawaii was a cruel combination of always-existing geography and wind patterns that were distorted by drought, a hurricane passing well to the south, and probably the usual suspect - climate change. 

We think of Hawaii as something of a tropical paradise, and it is. But there are distinct rainfall patterns. 

Winds over the Hawaiian islands usually blow from the east or northeast.  East facing slopes tend to collect the moisture, as the wind is forced to rise up the slopes of the mountains, wringing out the moisture. 

Then the winds blow down the slopes of the western slopes of the Hawaiian island mountains and volcanoes.  Descending air like that tends to dry out and warm up.  (Remember, if you have rising air, you're likely to get rain, sinking air tends to prevent rain).

Lahaina is on the far western end of Maui, so it is normally drier that points further east on the island. 

It's also the dry season.  This year, it's even more arid. The western half of Maui is in drought. While we certainly can't say climate change "caused" this drought, 

Next in the mix was Hurricane Dora. It's a powerful hurricane that had winds of up to 150 mph as it moved westward across the Pacific Ocean well to the south of the Hawaiian islands.  Though hurricanes have always passed south of Hawaii, or even near the islands from time to time, they're in general trending more common and stronger.

Hurricanes thrive on warm ocean water, the warmer the better, as far as hurricanes are concerned.  Ocean waters near Hawaii tend to be a little cooler than in many other parts of the Pacific.  That cooler water tends to weaken hurricanes.  But climate change has made those waters less cool, so hurricanes often don't weaken as readily.   

Hawaii was not directly affected Hurricane Dora, but it sped up the east winds over the islands.  High pressure north of Hawaii created also contributed to the strong winds. On Maui, those winds gained momentum as they blasted down the slopes of the mountains and created gusts of 60 mph or more in western Maui. 

Amid the dry conditions, new and existing small wildfires on the island became giant blowtorches, and one of them slammed into the Lahaina. 

It was chaos. Fallen utility poles blocked escape routes. The fire hopscotched from building to building seemingly instantaneously.  While Maui has had wildfires before, the island was not equipped for anything this big and this destructive.

The result was the tragedy on Maui.

Climate change did not "cause" this disaster. But it contributed to it and and made it worse. 

Despite the fact that this kind of catastrophe has never happened in Hawaii before, some people over the years worried it might. Like I said, this wasn't the first wildfire ever on Maui.  Many of the old buildings on Lahaina were made of wood, and packed close together.  That's a recipe for an urban firestorm. 

Winds have diminished somewhat on Maui, but fires are still raging. Other fires are also burning on the western side of the Big Island of Hawaii, but those are somewhat contained so far. 

A fire like this is unprecedented in Hawaii. As noted, this isn't the first wildfire ever in Hawaii. But it's by VERY far, the worst on record.  We continue to see tragedies and unhappy surprises egged on by climate change. 

 

Dense Northern Vermont Smoke Ending; Otherwise Little Change In Soggy Forecast. Floods Next?

Motorists make their way through thick haze along
Interstate 89 in Georgia Sunday. Wildfire smoke
from Canada created an air pollution problem in
northern Vermont. 

 The dense smoke from yesterday lingered overnight in northern Vermont, causing dangerously toxic air all night, but relief was beginning to settle in this morning. 

As of early this morning, most of the bad air had been flushed out, except in the Champlain Valley, where it seemed to be temporarily trapped. 

The bad Champlain Valley air should gradually improve over the course of this morning. Then we go back to our regularly scheduled programming of watching for possible flash floods here and there in Vermont all week. 

Let's get into the deets, first with the remarkable amount of wildfire smoke on Sunday

VERMONT POLLUTION EXTREME

To get you oriented, here's the air quality scale:

0-50 - Air is clean, 51-100, it's' moderate, 101-150 it's unhealthy for sensitive people, 151 to 200, it's unhealthy for all of us, and 201 and above it's very unhealthy for everyone and we should really just stay indoors. 

I saw reports from people last night saying their air pollution apps were registering as high as 269, so that's bad. Official readings from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation at around 7:30 p.m. Sunday evening had the index at 215 in Burlington and 210 in Underhill.

Northern Vermont was truly one of the most polluted areas on Earth Sunday afternoon and night. 

Southern Vermont was never really affected by this. The air quality index at Bennington hovered at around 20 all day Sunday which is about as clean as you can get. 

Satellite photo taken around 5:30 p.m. Sunday shows
thick smoke over northern Vermont, but perfectly clean
air in far southern counties. It also shows a 
thunderstorm over Addison County, and more storms
over southwestern Vermont. 

Early this morning, east and southeasterly winds began to push the bad air northwestward out of the region. 

It looks like a temperature inversion was keeping the smoke in the Champlain Valley early this morning, though. The cleansing south winds couldn't yet dig down into the valley floor.  I notices the air quality in Underhill was quickly crashing early this morning.  It went from a kind of icky 132 at 6 a.m. to a very nice 40 by 6:30 a.m. 

Meanwhile, during that time, Burlington stayed stuck between 195 and 200. From my perch on a hill in St. Albans, the sky overhead was a nice blue, but there was still a bit of haze around my house, and you can see a thick brown cloud still covering the valley below. 

The temperature inversion should break up later this morning, and the Champlain Valley will clean out. That's not to say another smoke attack won't happen again this summer. Fires are still certainly burning in Canada, so there's nothing to stop the smoke from returning to Vermont if the wind is right. 

FLOOD RISK LOOMS

As we've been talking about for days now, a risk of local flash floods should be with us all week.  Already, a flash flood warning was issued for part of northwestern New Hampshire near the Vermont border last evening, and another flash flood warning was up for areas near Mount Washington, New Hampshire earlier this morning. 

That risk will spread into Vermont, probably starting today and lasting all week. 

At any given time, only small sections of Vermont will be under flash flood warnings. You'll probably see an alert from time to time covering just certain sections of Vermont counties, warning of possible flash flooding. 

During much of the time this week, there won't be any warnings at all, since these local floods will have short fuses.

It'll rain torrentially on a particular set of mountains, a big gush of water will come down the slopes from all the rain, the storm will dissipate and the water will quickly recede, having already done its damage.

Any flash floods we might get would probably be pretty small in area, but are quite dangerous. As the name suggests, they  happen in a flash. There's not much time to get out of the way.  If you're in a flood-prone area, this is a great week to stay on your toes and move quickly if you get a warning. 

If you're driving in a downpour and see a little water gathering on the road ahead, don't chance it.  Even if the water in that instance isn't enough to carry your vehicle away, the water could rise dramatically in seconds while you're trying to splash through it.  Not a good scenario. 

All of Vermont will get a lot of rain this week, but large sections of the state will escape any real flooding. It will be hit and miss.  If there's any flash flooding, it's most likely in the afternoons and evenings each day through the week. 

As expected, there wasn't much rain around Vermont this morning.  But as a disturbance riding through the big upper level low that's stuck to our west comes through, showers and storms will blossom this afternoon. 

They'll wane somewhat tonight, and redevelop Tuesday.  Tomorrow to me looks even potentially wetter than today.  Wednesday looks awfully soggy, too.  It won't rain all the time, but occasionally, it will really come down. 

The risk of flash flooding will grow as the week goes on as soil conditions get wetter and wetter from all the downpours.  I'm guessing that since most of the slow moving scattered showers and storms yesterday were in southern Vermont, that's the part of the state that seems most likely to have issues here and there today with high water. 

Where and whether any problems arise from tomorrow onward is anybody's guess

Two Weird Disasters: 20 Inches Rain In Fort Lauderdale; Western Style Forest Fire In New Jersey

Almost two feet of rain in half a day around Fort Lauderdale,
Florida Wednesday caused serious flooding, as you'd imagine.

 I watched two unrelated, very different, localized but wildly extreme weather disasters unfold yesterday in the United States.  

One was just insane rains right around Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the other was a massive forest fire in New Jersey.  Let's do the flood first, then the fire. 

FORT LAUDERDALE

Rainfall was insane, to say the least. The Fort Lauderdale airport received a whopping 22.5 inches of rain in just seven hours. 

That's about a third of a normal year's rainfall in the city. Normal rainfall for the entire month of April there is about three inches.  It's possible Fort Lauderdale received more rain in half a day than the previous record for wettest entire month. 

That will have to be looked into to confirm. 

Not surprisingly, the Fort Lauderdale area was under a flash flood emergency.  Everything was flooded, including parts of the tarmac and the roads leading to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The airport shut down and probably won't reopen until at least noon today.  Broward County schools are also closed today.  Most streets were flooded yesterday, and it will take time for the water to drain. 

While all of South Florida had rain and thunderstorms on Wednesday, intense storms stalled around Fort Lauderdale. You can see in this radar loop on a Twitter post from @weathertrackus how persistent the storms were in just one area. 

The storm was highly localized. Miami, just 30 miles away from Fort Lauderdale,  only received 2.15 inches of rain, though it was that city's third day in a row with more than two inches of rain, with a three-day total of 7.38 inches. 

As the Washington Post explained, a warm front stalled near Fort Lauderdale, causing moisture to sweep in from the Atlantic and converge over  the region. The air was as saturated as it can get. The converging winds and a general atmosphere that supported updrafts for thunderstorms resulted in the torrential rains.

Had the warm front been moving, the heavy rain would not have lasted that long in any particular spot. But since it stalled, the rain unleashed its fury on Fort Lauderdale.

Heavy rain is possible in South Florida today, but less likely than it was yesterday. 

NEW JERSEY FIRE

Extreme wildfire in New Jersey Monday and Tuesday. 

The entire Northeast has been dealing with brush fires lately due to a spell of dry, warm weather. New Jersey, especially around the Pine Barrens, is especially prone to the fires.

But a blaze near Manchester Center and Lakehurst, New Jersey this week has been off the charts. 

The fire tore through the crowns of trees in forests, something you almost never see in the East. It looked like one of those gigantic wildfires in California in recent years. 

According to CBS News:

"New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's John Cecil says this fire is among the most intense he's ever seen. 'This fire exhibited extreme fire behavior,' Cecil said. We saw a wall of fire, 200-foot flames, raining fire embers. I don't mean to be dramatic but this was a severe situation."

Hundreds of people were hastily evacuated as the fire spread. 

The great news is firefighters prevented the huge blaze from torching anybody's house and no serious injuries have so far been reported. 

At last report, the blaze consumed about 4,000 acres and was 75 percent contained. 

Near record warmth, dry air and stiff breezes continues the fire risk in New Jersey and surrounding states today. 

 

Fire And Water: California Fire Devastates, Then Flash Flooding Makes It Worse

In this photo from the Siskiyou, California County Sheriff's
office, this truck was swept away by flash flooding and 
debris flows near the giant McKinney fire. The man
inside the truck was injured but will recover. 

 This seems to be the summer of fire and flood. 

Wildfires are causing death and destruction from Oregon to Texas. Flash floods are causing even more death and destruction from Arizona to Virginia. 

And, at least in one case now, we have both. 

You've probably seen on the news the McKinney fire in northern California, not far from the Oregon border.  Four people are known dead from the fire, it burned numerous homes and other buildings and covered 57,000 acres since it started a week ago. 

Finally, it rained quite a bit over the fire area over the past day or two. Normally that's great news, and in part, it is. The downpours have quelled the flames somewhat. The fire is not out, and not really under control or contained But at least it's more manageable. The wildfire isn't as wild as it was, for now anyway. 

But, since it's a summer of extremes, it couldn't just drizzle on the fire for a few days. No, we had to have intense thunderstorms that dumped up to three inches of rain on some spots. 

According to the Redding (California) Record Searchlight, the downpours caused flash flooding,  debris flows and rock slides that caused damage and injured one private contractor firefighter. when the truck he was in was carried away then became stuck in the mud. Thankfully, his injuries aren't that bad and he's expected to recover just fine. 

Video on Twitter showed several trucks stuck in a flash flood in the McKinney fire zone with one man who scrambled onto the hood of a pickup truck to escape the water. 

Thunderstorms also produce lightning, and these storms sparked plenty of strikes. Some lightning hit areas not really affected by rain, which started new fires. 

The weather in the fire zone is forecast to turn much drier, hotter and windier over the next few days. Despite the rain and flash flooding and debris flows, this fire could easily resume its rampage. 

It's another long, hot, dangerous summer in California. 

 

Two Iconic National Parks Suffer Big Time Under Climate Related Disasters This Summer

Firefighters spray water around a giant
Sequoia last weekas part of the efforts to
fend off a wildfire that was threatening a
grove of these ancient trees in 
Yosemite National Park 

 Two of the most iconic National Parks in the United States are Yellowstone and Yosemite. 

Both are suffering serious damage, and tourists are being turned away due to separate climate related disasters. A fire is burning in Yosemite National Park in California. Yellowstone National Park is still picking up the pieces from extreme floods back in June. We''ll go to California first, then check out Yellowstone: 

YOSEMITE SEQUOIAS THREATENED

A possible worst case scenario in Yosemite looks like it was avoided this past week. i The so-called Washburn fire is threatened the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. The grove is home to about 500 mature giant sequoias. These are some of the largest and oldest living things on Earth. A few of the trees in the Mariposa Grove are probably nearly 3,000 years old, which is mind-boggling to me. 

Some of these Sequoias are over 260 feet tall and have a trunk circumference of 25 to 32 feet. So, they're the height of a good 18-story building. If a 72-passenger bus parked directly in front of one of these trees, it would just barely obscure the trunk of one of these trees.

 Firefighters were pulling out all the stops to save these trees from damage.

The fire was stubborn, burning in steep terrain with lots of dead and downed fuels in the fire, said Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite fire information spokeswoman quoted in the Washington Post. So this fire couldn't be contained   easily, especially considering we're at the start of peak California fire season and no rain is in the forecast. 

 According to the Washington Post:

"Fire management staffers were working to preserve the trees by removing fuels around the sequoias ad using sprinkler systems to increase humidity around the trees, among other things, according to Phillipe. She told the Associated Press that first responders were  using 'every tactic imaginable' to contain the blaze, including airdropping fire retardant."

Though it looks like the sequoias were spared this time, they remain in danger from future fires and climate change. Fires since 2020 have killed roughly 15 percent of all sequoias. So they're losing a war of attrition from fires, drought and climate change.  

The fire itself was still burning and spreading at last report, and experts say it will be weeks before they can extinguish it. 

YELLOWSTONE

Also, I'm sure you've seen news reports of the immense flooding in Yellowstone National Park back in June. 

A house near Yellowstone National Park destroyed by
massive June flooding. The park itself suffered 
extensive damage in the flood and it could take years
to fully recover from the disaster.

Amazingly no deaths were reported with the massive floods in and around Yellowstone in June just as the park was approaching its 150th anniversary.

Parts of the park are back open, and a fair number of tourists can visit large swaths of the area. But roads leading to and near the park were utterly destroyed, and countless trails within the park were also badly damaged.

It is estimated it will take years and a good $1 billion  to get the park back in shape. Even then, it might not ever be back to the way it was. 

According to the Associated Press:

"'This is not going to be an easy rebuild,' Superintendent Cam Sholly said ....as he highlighted photos of massive gaps of roadway in the steep canyon. 'I don't think it's going to be smart to invest potentially, you know, tens of millions of dollars, or however much it is, into repairing a road that may be subject to seeing a similar flooding event in the future.'"

 Here's why they're worried about equally serious floods in the future. The Yellowstone flood might have been related to climate change, it's frankly hard to tell for sure until scientists do a review of what happened. 

A cool, wet late spring built up a snowpack in the mountains. Then it abruptly turned hot, and then deep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico triggered torrential rains. The result was the huge flood.

Overall, though, climate change is increasing the chances and the magnitude of droughts and floods (Yellowstone was technically experiencing a drought when the deluge hit in June). With climate change, rainfall in the west is expected to become more and more unreliable. However, when it does rain, it's more likely to come in huge deluges instead of manageable showers. 

New NASA Satellite To Give A Better Handle On Severe Storms, Wildfires

A rocket launches a new state of the art
weather satellite into space this past
Tuesday. Photo by Kim Shiflett/NASA

You're probably familiar with those satellite maps that show us the cloud patterns over the United States and the rest of the world.  

Those pictures are taken by what are known as "geostationary" satellites, whose orbit keeps them pretty much over the exact same spot above the Earth all the time. 

With increasing risks of severe storms and wildfires, NASA has launched a new satellite that will provide much better information on these disasters, as The Hill reports. 

The satellite, which will be named GOES-18, was successfully launched into space on Tuesday.

It will keep an eye on the western U.S. and Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and a big chunk of the Pacific Ocean.

Once the satellite settled in,  it will park itself 22,300 miles above Earth, and it will have a whiz-bang arsenal of instruments to keep an eye on would-be dangers.

One piece is a lightning mapper, which is the first time one of these has been placed on a geostationary satellite. That will help meteorologists examine patterns in thunderstorms, especially when they're just starting to develop. 

This, in turn would help scientists determine if these nascent storms will unleash dangerous wind, hail or tornadoes, or just become garden variety thunderstorms. 

The satellite will also zero in on wildfires, especially in the western United States. The satellite will be able to closely monitor the intensity and path of these fires. The satellite will also be able to pick out weather factors that would change the trajectory of these fires.

The satellite will even be able to see space weather hazards heading our way. Solar flares can disrupt utilities on Earth, and early warnings can help operators buttress electrical and other systems against these disruptions.

This new satellite will replace an existing satellite called GOES-17 that watches western North America. The old satellite will be retained as a backup in case the new one has a problem or needs maintenance. 

 

 

 

Updates From Colorado Fire: People Missing, Count of Homes Burned Rises

A person combs through the wreckage of a fire-destroyed
home in Colorado after last week's fires. At least two
people remain missing and 991 buildings were destroyed. 

In the initial aftermath of that big, horrific wildfire in Colorado last week, I was hoping for a miracle.  Preliminary reports seemed to indicate nobody died in the fire.  

Alas, that was not to be. At least two people are missing and are presumed to have died in the fire.  

Officials say 991 buildings were destroyed and 127 damaged. The vast majority of these structures were homes. News9 reports that's not the final total but will be close to it.

Speculation initially indicated downed power lines caused the fire.  But later, utility workers could not find any downed wires near where the fire started.  People driving by the area when the fire was starting reported seeing a shed on fire amid strong winds. 

The shed is on land owned by Twelve Tribes, a fundamentalist religious sect.  Authorities executed a search warrant on the property, but it's unclear whether any criminal charges are coming, or even if the devastating fire started at the shed or spread to it from a nearby area, the Daily Beast and New York Times reported. 

If human negligence was involved, then criminal charges could result, News9 reported.

As in most other big disasters, there's been an outpouring of help headed to Boulder County, Colorado. That's from next door neighbors whose homes managed to survive, to people across the U.S.  Obviously, the Biden administration is providing federal aid, too. 

Some of the efforts are sad, but creative and moving. 

A local woman's clothing boutique in the area called Due South was undamaged in the fire.  So the owner, who lost her own home to fire 28 years to the day of this wildfire, gave 41 women who lost everything a $500 free shopping spree in the store. 

Other volunteers have build sifters, boxes with wire screens on the bottom, so that fire victims can go through the ashes of their homes to find belongings like rings, other jewelry coins and small metal heirlooms. 

One of the volunteers, Erin Moe, said her group made 90 sifters for the people who lost their homes. 

If you want to help Colorado fire victims, click on this link from News9 to know which is the best way to handle this. 

Video: An insider look taken by a firefighter as other firefighters struggle to deal with dozens of burning houses amid extreme winds and a lack of water to fight the flames.  Click on this hyperlink or view video below by clicking on arrow, then YouTube logo. 

Colorado Fire Ends The Year With Yet Another Climate Calamity

Destructive wildfires loom over Christmas decorations
Thursday in Colorado.

 Fires were calming down near Boulder, Colorado this morning as winds slackened, temperatures plunged and snow got ready to move in, but the damage is done.  

At least 580 homes, plus other buildings burned in yesterday's fast moving wildfire near Boulder, mostly in the relatively affluent and densely populated towns of Louisville and Superior.

 There was no way to stop the flames. Winds gusted as high as 110 mph.  The flames advanced the length of a football field in a few seconds.

Like many of this year's disasters, this one is especially notable for its speed and surprise.  Forecasters had warned the public ahead of time about strong winds and dry conditions, but this intense fire appeared to take everyone by surprise.

I worry not everybody was able to get out in time, and they might find bodies in the rubble today. I hope not.

Upwards of 30,000 people had to be evacuated ahead of the fires. Local news outlets are calling this fire the most destructive in Colorado history. 

Once again, like we've seen so often in the past year, scenes out of Colorado were like a wild disaster movie, but were all too real.

One clip showed a Costco being evacuated, as shoppers hastily left the building into a parking lot filled with fast moving, blinding smoke, sirens and chaos. An Associated Press video showed spot fires rapidly starting in ornamental bushes and plastic trash cans in one neighborhood amid the intense winds and smoke. Photos bizarrely showed festive Christmas decorations in the foreground, with flames ripping through homes behind them. 

Strong winds coming off the Front Range of the Rockies are not that odd, though Thursday's winds were more intense than usual. What was odd was the drought conditions, and the lack of snow so far this year.

Usually when these powerful winds develop near Boulder or Denver this time of year, there's snow on the ground, or the snow just melted in the warm winds. That leaves relatively wet ground and little chance of fires gaining too much ground.  

Passengers on flights leaving Denver airport
saw this apocalyptic scene below them.

Climate change has shifting the equation, and it seems these out of season fires are here to stay as a result. Note that the extreme fire that destroyed Paradise, California started on November 8, 2018, at a time when the rainy season should have been beginning in northern California.

The destructive fire around Gatlinburg, Tennessee on November 28, 2016 was also incredibly late in the season for the region.  That fire, like the one in Boulder, burned in intense winds just ahead of a cold front. 

More weather havoc appears to be on the way today elsewhere in the nation.  In a band through and south of the Ohio Valley, considerable flooding is on tap today and tomorrow.  

Strangely humid, warm air for this time of year will interact with a cold front, causing torrential rainfall. The flood danger zone includes areas most affected by late season tornadoes on December 10.

More tornadoes also seem likely today and tonight in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia in the exceptionally summer-like air.

Though tornado outbreaks do occur in the South this time of year, the frequency and intensity of tornadoes in the United States in December has been off the charts.  Climate change seems to have had a hand in that, too.  The Gulf of Mexico is at record warm levels, and that's feeding the storms and enabling them to spin off more tornadoes and torrential rains.

Fire videos:

Click on on the hyperlinks if you don't seem them on the page:

The Denver Channel gives a horrifying overview:

In what looks like a scene from a disaster movie, a Costco is being hastily evacuated as the fire closes in: 

Here's the awful view a passenger on a United flight passing over the fire scene saw:

BREAKING: Colorado Wildfire Burns At Least 500 Homes

Just a couple of the hundreds of homes going up in flames
near Boulder, Colorado today 

 A terrible winter wildfire was sweeping through neighborhoods in and near Boulder Colorado, prompting mass evacuations and burning more than 500 homes - so far.  

The area involved is in drought and has had almost no snow so far this winter.  Downslope winds of 70 to 90 mph are fanning the flames, leading to the disaster. 

 There's no word on any fatalities yet, but I worry some are inevitable, given how quickly flames spread in the intense winds. 

Wildfires sometimes happen during the winter in the Plains east of the Colorado Rockies even in winter. But nothing on this scale. This might be the worst wildfire in Colorado history.

As I write this Thursday evening, the fires continued to chew through densely populated neighborhoods.

It is supposed to snow in Boulder tomorrow, finally, but that will be too little, too late.  I'm going to pin the blame on this partly on climate change.  The high winds this time of year are common in the Boulder area. But the snow-free conditions and drought are ot. 

I"ll have more on this in Friday's post.