Wildfires burning up British Columbia

[Okanagan]

I had to look those planes up. I couldnt imagine a plane scooping water without tumbling itself.
What I found was pretty interesting. I bet it takes some serious skill.

Thanks for posting those videos!  Fascinating to see the plane scoop up a load of water.  I've never seen that in person.   I learned a lot from the second video.  The plane never stops flying but just drags it's belly and scooper intake in the water.  If I did the math right, they claim in the video that a plane can make a water drop about every four minutes if it has a lake near the fire. 

[Okanagan]

Update is same old.  Some families got to go back in the past week, some after a few days and one area after 45 days evacuated, depending on which fire.  And every day new evacuations are ordered, several hundred people fresh ordered out today, as new fires start or old fires eat across country into new areas.

[Hawks Feather]

If only some of the rain that has been hitting the Gulf states would have been shared with you. 

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

  Pretty sad situation

[pitw]

I'm thinking Turdeau shoulda had that fire put out much quicker to help his save the planet syndrome.
Seems quite a bit of country has been closed to hunting for the year which is too bad.
I haven't seen the sun or moon look so different for such a long time in my life.

[Okanagan]

Just heard on local news that there are now 164 active fires in B.C. including 12 new ones started last night.  The fire people say that some of the fires will go underground deep in roots and they will start up again next spring.  Those won't be put out till next spring in 2018 (if then... ).

Where we used to live in the Okanagan, a fire got into old underground wood and would start smoking and start a fire year after year, even when they dug it up and put it out the best they could find it.  It was just off highway 97 and I suspect that the wood was ancient stuff buried in a rockslide that came off of the steep mountain hundreds of years ago, or at least before that country was settled.

Our rifle deer season opened yesterday in several interior mule deer regions but I suspect that the areas "open" have a lot of closed roads due to fire hazard. I'll wait till the whole province opens next week, and mostly hunt grouse till we get some rain.  Second driest summer on record here.   

[JohnP]

I hate to say it but even when the fire is no longer a menace it will be a big problem for those living on the mountainsides and in the surrounding foothills.  About a week after our mountainside was completely devastated the monsoon started.  We had sandbags stacked about three feet high around our patio and even higher on the banks of a small dry wash that was near our back patio.  After the first big thunderstorm we shoveled mud and rocks from the patio as the water had crested the sandbags and did so after each big rain.  Some of the folks less fortunate had mud up to their windows and in their house.  The people in those areas should start to "mud proof" their house's - if possible.   

[Okanagan]

John, wise words and good warning.  There will be a LOT of mudslides and erosion damage in the next year or two. 

When we lived in Southern California I decided that doomsday in So Cal would be a series of events that would start with a wet winter and long wet spring which would grow wild grass over waist high all over the country.  I've seen that happen.  Then at the end of summer it would turn extra dry and the Santa Ana winds would whip wildfires through the grass till the entire southern half of the state was scorched bare of brush and grass.  Then that winter a long series of rains would saturate the ground followed by a huge rainstorm.  Just when the flooding and mud sliding gets massive, the BIG ONE earthquake would hit and jiggle the mud from every slope.  The End of the World Los Angeles style. 

More evacuations today. 

[FinsnFur]

Clyde that sounds so possible it's creepy.

[Okanagan]

Cold rain here and a cold front passing over most of southern British Columbia, with snow at higher elevations.  The Hanceville/Riske Creek fire that started on July 7  and burned my friend's house was contained two days ago.  Province wide emergency status ended yesterday.  Some fires are still going but the cold and rain in some areas is helping.  What a summer!

[nastygunz]

 I wonder why we never get any fires like that, it is like 95% forested here.

[pitw]

You probably get some rain there.

[nastygunz]

 Mostly in the spring time and then just off n on. I shall have to investigate this further!