Cough, gag. My house smells like smoke, from a fire over 400 miles away!

[kbohip]

Living in this area of the country, I've dealt with smoke from many a forest fire. The one that is burning right now in southern New Mexico must be massive though, as I had to shut the windows in my house because the smell of smoke is so bad. It literally smells like my neighbor's house in the winter when he has a fire in his wood burning fireplace. It's so thick in the air that the mountains to the west of my house were almost completely blocked at times today. What's most amazing is that this is from over 400 miles away! Looking at in on the satellite map in Weather Underground, it shows the smoke going right over Santa Fe and Albuquerque and then making a beeline to here. I can't imagine how they are even breathing down there right now!

[Keven]

Yeah, there were wildfires in Minnesota last summer or so and it smelled here too.

[smoked trout]

Get used to it kbo, my best guess is you're going to be seeing a lot of fires closer to home pretty soon. You're lucky you don't have mountains on both sides of you to trap all that smoke.

The only good news on that Whitewater fire is that the fire is going to run into recent years' fires pretty quick. That will slow it down some. The bad news is that monsoon season down there is about a month away.

We've had the smoke so bad here visibility was about 200 yds. Go out every morning and brush the ash off your car before heading out. Usually happens in August here. I'm hoping this isn't one of those years.

[JustinC939]

Damn, I'm glad I don't live in the Midwest. For some reason, I have a really keen sense of smell when it comes to smoke, and smoke of any kind always gives me a headache. I can sometimes smell the smoke from my pothead neighbors a few houses down. But smelling smoke from 400 miles is just crazy

[kbohip]

Damn, I'm glad I don't live in the Midwest. For some reason, I have a really keen sense of smell when it comes to smoke, and smoke of any kind always gives me a headache. I can sometimes smell the smoke from my pothead neighbors a few houses down. But smelling smoke from 400 miles is just crazy

Usually it doesn't bother me, but last night was crazy. I could smell it on my shirt this morning! I don't even remember the huge Hayman fire that was only 30 miles from my house being that bad. Then again, we got lucky here in town as the smoke mostly blew north.

[Enmore]

It's amazing how far stuff travels. My car is covered in dust that's blown in from the Sahara Desert, which is about 2,000 miles away.

[kbohip]

According to my thermometer right now it's 98F and the humidity is 5%. There's a forest fire that started yesterday about 40 miles west of town that in 24 hours has doubled in size to 1,000 acres already. This heat, wind, and low humidity will fan the flames like nothing else. Yesterday I could see the smoke above Pikes Peak and the mountains, although the wind pushed it back over the mountains today so it's clear here for now. No rain in sight.

http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/F...159358625.html

[smoked trout]

How's the smoke today kbo? There's fires all over the place in CO right now.

You're pretty lucky you're not in a closed in valley, at least you got lots of prairie to the East for all that smoke to blow.

[kbohip]

The fire just to the west of town, the Waldo Canyon fire, got within 100' of destroying a neighborhood yesterday. Had the winds been blowing from the west when the fire crested the ridge though, it would've been a disaster. Colorado Springs got VERY lucky yesterday with the easterly winds. They kept the fire moving away from town and the smoke blew the other way for most of the day too. Today it's clear as can be at my house, but last night the downtown area, the westside, and the southern part of town had heavy smoke.

It's been an almost surreal few days of weather here. I've lived here since 1986 and have never seen a single 100F day in that time. We had one Saturday, Sunday, and they are forecasting another for today and possibly even tomorrow now! Couple this with extreme low humidity values of 5-10% during the day, arsonists running around starting fires, and wind, and you have a really big fire problem.

I was up at my mom's house yesterday who lives in the foothills. She's really nervous about these fires as her house is surrounded by large pines and scrub oak. I went around her property in April and cleared a ton of scrub oak and pines away from her house with a chain saw and chipper, but she wouldn't let me touch some of the large 50' pines that are within 20' of the north side of her home. Those are now BONE dry along with everything else up there. Yesterday while I was up there taking pictures of the fire, I reminded her that they were the first thing the fire would hit if it started coming towards her house. She won't let me touch them anyway, but you better believe they're coming down if a fire starts heading towards them.

Speaking of pictures, I've got quite a few high res ones. Does anyone know a decent free pic hosting site other than photobucket?

http://www.gazette.com/

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingne...lorado-springs

[smoked trout]

Well, enjoy the sunsets. Should be nice and red. Sounds like you're having the weather we had around here in 2007.

A very high percentage of house fires started from wild fire ignite in the gutters or accumulated debris on the roof. With pines that close to the house she's probably got some debris up there, get it off of there!

Otherwise sounds like you've done as much as she'll let you. Good luck!

And yes, post some pics!

[kbohip]

Fire is now at over 5,100 acres and from what I can see seems to be growing. The firefighters are now working to keep it out of a canyon that leads to the Air Force Academy and a subdivision below. The heat this last week has been unrelenting. Almost every day except yesterday has hit 100F, and the humidity has been below 10% for 16 hours of the day. Currently 100F with 7% humidity. Even worse is the fact that the winds have been pretty good today, gusting up to 33mph. The fire is at a higher elevation though so I'd imagine they are getting 40mph gusts up there right now. There are at least 3 large planes up in the air at any one time dropping slurry on the fire, as well as smaller spotter planes and a couple helicopters.

Even worse, there are apparently at least a few arsonists running around trying to start more fires. The mountain around my mom's house was lit up last night by police with flashlights searching for someone who may have started a fire near her.

[kbohip]

It hit 101F here today! That's an ALL TIME record high for Colorado Springs!