Hot and dry

It is hot and dry here. 100 degrees and the humidity is at 13. Scuff rubber soled shoes on the sidewalk and you are liable to start a fire. I was fueling up the pickup just now. Went to wash the windshield and the water dried up faster than I could get it scraped off. Even starting with a pretty liberal amount of water it is gone in an instant. Now the wind has picked up. One little spark could turn into a big fire today.

13% humidity is very low! That's a firefighters nightmare. I don't know if it ever gets that low here. If it does it's not for long. I would have never guessed it would get that low close to the coast. Maybe y'all will get a shower soon.

I am a ways from the coast now. The 10 day forecast has highs of 99-100 everyday with zero chance of rain. Even over on the coast we get very little rain in July and August. For the future I won't be going up the hill. Too much dry grass to ride a quad up there.

Dave

For your sake, I hope the Hammonds family does not visit you.

Bright Raven":14bhj6ck said:

Dave

For your sake, I hope the Hammonds family does not visit you.

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It's not the Hammonds he has to worry about. It's the idiots from the government that'll burn him out setting prescribed burns, or back fires. The BLM takes lessons from the EPA.

True Grit Farms":ouu7prph said:

Bright Raven":ouu7prph said:

Dave

For your sake, I hope the Hammonds family does not visit you.

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It's not the Hammonds he has to worry about. It's the idiots from the government that'll burn him out setting prescribed burns, or back fires. The BLM takes lessons from the EPA.

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I spent 30 years living in the high plains deserts of Wyoming and Montana. Helena MT is a good example. In a good year, they get a total of 10 inches of precipitation. You have to water your lawn daily if you want grass. Many give up and go to rock gardens, etc. The common cause of fires is the exhaust systems of motored vehicles and campfires that get away. Ranchers, campers, day travelers, etc cause 90 percent of the fires.

The west is beautiful but everything has a price. Those areas are subject to a great fire risk. I lived in Montana City outside of Helena. Pronghorn, elk, bear, etc in your back yard. But every summer was stressful because of the fire risk.

All of the fires that I know of so far this year were caused by one of three things. Lightening, campers, and smokers. Big one (1000,000+ acres) in central Oregon was lightening. Huge one in northern Nevada (400,000+) was caused by campfires/fireworks. But what ever the cause we are sure ripe to burn a bunch of country in the next couple weeks.

And the Hammonds would be welcome at my house anytime.

It is still way too hot and too dry. The west is burning up again this year. There is a 100% complete burn ban. To the point that is is illegal to smoke a cigarette outside. What I wonder about is why so many of these fires this year are arson caused. We have had a couple local ones that got put out quickly that were arson. Wasco County which is just about burnt completely down has had 3 big fires. One from lightning, one they know is arson, and one that is still going now which arson is suspected. The arson one burnt over 70,000 acres, killed one man, burnt several homes, and a lot of wheat that was just ready to cut was disked in to create fire lines.

It's 103, 104, and 102 the next three days. Then down to the 90's. No rain at all in the plans. We're headed up north next weekend, but on of the roads up is closed by a fire, so we'll see how that goes.

Dave, we have one of our guys that was in Dalles but got moved to Merlin. Said he had been on wheat field fires. Is that near you.
We have a crew in CA too,

Hot and dry here too.. was 103 at 1pm, now at 102...

kenny thomas":1hxtsbyl said:

Dave, we have one of our guys that was in Dalles but got moved to Merlin. Said he had been on wheat field fires. Is that near you.
We have a crew in CA too,

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The wheat fields are just across the Columbia from where I lived the last 9 months. I am about half the state east of there now. This area is big open rangeland. We have dodged the bullet so far. All of our fires have been human started and along roads. That allows getting resources to them quickly. What is scary here is there is a lot of very rugged country that simply doesn't allow getting to them with equipment. A 5 acre fire along a road gets stepped on quickly. It is those back country fires that go from 5 to 500 acres pretty fast. After that it is Katie bar the door.

Dave":1343a0p2 said:

It is still way too hot and too dry. The west is burning up again this year. There is a 100% complete burn ban. To the point that is is illegal to smoke a cigarette outside. What I wonder about is why so many of these fires this year are arson caused. We have had a couple local ones that got put out quickly that were arson. Wasco County which is just about burnt completely down has had 3 big fires. One from lightning, one they know is arson, and one that is still going now which arson is suspected. The arson one burnt over 70,000 acres, killed one man, burnt several homes, and a lot of wheat that was just ready to cut was disked in to create fire lines.

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Just wondering, if it's illegal to smoke inside like it is in many places, which law do you break?

Been raining 9 days straight here

1982vett":1ny3iman said:

Dave":1ny3iman said:

It is still way too hot and too dry. The west is burning up again this year. There is a 100% complete burn ban. To the point that is is illegal to smoke a cigarette outside. What I wonder about is why so many of these fires this year are arson caused. We have had a couple local ones that got put out quickly that were arson. Wasco County which is just about burnt completely down has had 3 big fires. One from lightning, one they know is arson, and one that is still going now which arson is suspected. The arson one burnt over 70,000 acres, killed one man, burnt several homes, and a lot of wheat that was just ready to cut was disked in to create fire lines.

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Just wondering, if it's illegal to smoke inside like it is in many places, which law do you break?

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A person would have to smoke in their own home or in their car.

Here's our weather in the past 24 hours (page automatically updated), official temps
39.4C (103F), 11% humidity
https://weather.gc.ca/past_conditions/i ... tation=wkf

Nesikep":3rpl0fd0 said:

Here's our weather in the past 24 hours (page automatically updated), official temps
39.4C (103F), 11% humidity
https://weather.gc.ca/past_conditions/i ... tation=wkf

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some people had weather stations reading 42.7C, but they may have been subject to radiant heat or in the sun at some point.. nevertheless, it's cooking out there.. looks like a little cooler weather coming up

Nesikep":hdhzjc95 said:

Here's our weather in the past 24 hours (page automatically updated), official temps
39.4C (103F), 11% humidity
https://weather.gc.ca/past_conditions/i ... tation=wkf

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Can you break a sweat at 11% humidity?

move some irrigation lines through 5 ft tall oats.. I'll tell you the humidity is way higher there!

True Grit Farms":3na5g8ae said:

Nesikep":3na5g8ae said:

Here's our weather in the past 24 hours (page automatically updated), official temps
39.4C (103F), 11% humidity
https://weather.gc.ca/past_conditions/i ... tation=wkf

Click to expand...

Can you break a sweat at 11% humidity?

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You darn sure sweat. It just isn't dripping off you. It just evaporates as fast as it comes out of the pores. Drink a ton of water and has to have gone somewhere.