Well, this ain’t good.
While we’ve all been watching the big fire up by Las Vegas, a smaller one is stealing a march on Los Alamos as the predicted gusty winds drive the flames onward. The county and LANL are to be bumped from “Ready” to “Set” in the Ready-Set-Go evacuation protocol.
From InciWeb:
“Southwest winds are expected to be even stronger tomorrow and unseasonably warm, dry, and windy weather is expected to continue well into next week. Weather and fuel conditions are favorable for rapid fire growth, and in addition to the very steep and often inaccessible terrain, firefighters will be challenged by potential for extreme fire behavior, especially in areas where winds and topography align with the fire.”
We’re starting to get smoke here in The Duck! CIty, maybe from the Bear Trap fire down in the Magdalena Ranger District. Unless we have a fresh fire start somewhere in the neighborhood that I haven’t heard about.
Let’s all be careful out there.
Mad Blog Media 
The San Rafael fire south of Sonoita, the little ranching community you rode through on your bike tour Patrick, went from 1400 to 10,000 acres this afternoon. At least we don’t have red flag conditions tomorrow like you guys have. Greta is right, the world is on fire, literally and figuratively.
Oof. These things blow up fast. The winds aren’t cutting the firefighters any slack up up by Las Vegas. Seems some of the crews are from California and they’ve never seen our fabled wind-from-all-directions conditions. Keep your go-bag handy.
Seems like deja vu all over again. I recall having to pack the critical shit in the house into two cars back in 2011. Wasn’t sure we would see the old same place again except as embers.
Fun doing triage on a lifetime of acquisitions, innit?
“OK, what do I like, what do I need, and what will fit into a Subaru in under 10 minutes? Right, cat, laptop, phone, backup drives, critical documents, a change of clothes, one bike each, and the camping gear.”
That, and taking pictures of each room for the insurance estimators.
Haw. They’d never believe it.
“Jesus Christ, how many Macs did this dude have? Who is he, Tim Cook? And look at all these bicycles! Gotta be Photoshopped.”
Tell them to call me. I’m a witness.
PS: You forgot Mia. We used to have a little go bag for Duffy. Might be time to make another.
Heh.
https://labikes.blogspot.com/2011/06/next-day-all-smoke-no-mirrors.html
More post fire fun.
https://labikes.blogspot.com/2011/07/conchas-fire-aftermath-bear-facts.html
Well, last night the weather service slipped another red flag warning for today.
Ayuh. This should keep up for a few more days here in New Mexico. Some residents of southeastern Taos County are on today’s “get ready to run” list. Good times. Maybe not.
So far the firefighters seem to be doing well against in the worst conditions possible. I don’t see any smoke from the Sonoita area. I was worried it would grow to the East out of the grassland and into the forest on the West side of the Huachuca mountains.
Just what you didn’t need.
https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=NMZ211&warncounty=NMC028&firewxzone=NMZ102&local_place1=2%20Miles%20SW%20Los%20Alamos%20Airport%20NM&product1=Wind+Advisory&lat=35.8693&lon=-106.307
Hoping for a miraculous rainy stretch for you high desert dwellers but odds are against it. Got a taste of swirling gusty winds here in the Mitten State the past few days which gave me a small taste of how quick things can develop in your regions. Go bags indeed.