Pine shadows.
It was already 70° when I got up at 6 and the sky looked wrong.
The wind spent the night blowing things open, over, around, and down. It wasn’t the usual thundering roar, reminiscent of life in a 9-by-40 singlewide next to the railroad tracks; more like a conversation at the next table that you’re trying not to hear.
“No, no, no. First, you cut off the head. Then the arms and legs. Bag ’em up separate. Easier to carry.”
Last night’s eclipse, which we could not see, was accompanied by a “Health Alert Due to Blowing Dust,” which we could.
We had forgotten to turn on the bedroom humidifier before retiring, and when I arose my snout was having flashbacks to the glorious days when my friends and I supercharged our Saturday nights (and occasionally Sunday mornings) with a blend of Russian vodka and Peruvian marching powder.
The Duck! City hasn’t updated its air-quality widget since Friday, so I lack the deets. But I’m certainly getting the general drift of things. It’s not a great day to be a woodland firefighter, for instance. That big mother up by Las Vegas is only getting bigger, and it’s got a few smaller ones to keep it company.
Here’s NMFireInfo:
Dry thunderstorms in the afternoon will likely cause very active fire behavior and increase potential for fire spread. The fire is expected to remain active, with critically dry fuels and near-record temperatures.
Oh, good. I can’t wait for Memorial Day weekend. Where the fireworks stands at? FreeDumb®, etc.
Tags: Memorial Day, Wildfires
Mad Blog Media 
May 16, 2022 at 11:39 am |
It was 83 degrees and 5% humidity here at 10 AM. The humidity here at 8 PM last night was 1%. Dry? How dry was it?
May 16, 2022 at 4:45 pm |
The phrase “popcorn fart” comes to mind.
May 16, 2022 at 12:28 pm |
We went down to Beer Creek Brewery for lunch yesterday with our friend Tore. On the way back, it looked like the fire was burning as far as we could see up the mountain chain. It was pretty surreal.
Last night, the air was thick with smoke and smelled like burning trees of course. I could barely see the moon even before the eclipse and gave up. Smoke was too thick.
May 16, 2022 at 4:46 pm |
I like my chicken extra crispy, not my breathin’ air. And it’s not even Memorial Day Weekend yet. Remember, it’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.
May 16, 2022 at 10:47 pm |
Just when you think that the Chicago suburbs, in May no less, were immune to an on-the-phone alert: “warning of extremely dry weather conditions leading to a chance of spreading wildfires — mixed with moderately high winds” (which here mean the immediate burning of houses), well, that happened this morning. The news tonight did not include such happenings, so we dodged a bullet that probably wouldn’t have happened anyway. But it could have. I’ve never seen such an alert of that type. Tornados, all the time. But never that.
The news *did* include the arrival of Armadillos in southern Ilinois. The global warming is gonna gitcha. I hope y’all keep fire-free as long as you can.
May 17, 2022 at 7:38 am |
Yow. Fire and armadillos? Were you magically translated to Texas during the night? What’s next? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats, living together … mass hysteria?
May 17, 2022 at 8:54 am |
Armadillos? If armadillos are showing up in Carbondale, where I went to college, then SIU can change its team names from the Salukis to Armadillos. Everyone knows what an armadillo is.
May 17, 2022 at 12:32 pm |
Turns out Carbondale is armadillo central.
https://thesouthern.com/news/state-and-regional/armadillos-have-arrived-in-downstate-illinois-and-are-heading-north/article_1b184e14-0960-5763-a474-83e7de4e7438.html