T1B

Fuck.

No smoke here but smoke to the north and south and I hear that there's a new fire about 10 miles east of here.

Fuck.

Getting out the fire evacuation list.

Shit, it's not even windy here...yet.

I-15 is closed from Highway 78 to the 56...major north-south artery. That means that everybody will be getting off the 15 and trying to head west on the 76, making it impossible to get the fuck out of here.

Evacuations in Ramona, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Fe, Rancho Penasquitos, Fairbanks Ranch. This shit is headed for Del Mar.

Damn.

I get a lot of flack on this board for choosing to live where...here it comes...where... it SNOWS! Oh, the horrah!

I'd rather knock some ice off my windshield than watch my house burn down. Maybe that's just me.

Yeah, but my pool is still warm enough to swim in.

You can also put a sump pump in it and use it to put out the fire once it hits your house.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:I get a lot of flack on this board for choosing to live where...here it comes...where... it SNOWS! Oh, the horrah!

I'd rather knock some ice off my windshield than watch my house burn down. Maybe that's just me.

At the rate things are going this season, you may not even have to worry about knocking the ice off your windshield.

It's October 22nd and I'm wearing shorts. Are you fucking KIDDING me?

God I love global warming.

Mikey wrote:Yeah, but my pool is still warm enough to swim in.

This is Fall, mang



I have no need or desire to swim in a pool 12 months out of the year.

Headhunter wrote:You can also put a sump pump in it and use it to put out the fire once it hits your house.

I've got the pump...





But I don't have the hose yet.

Not surprising that an old dude like you would have a working pump, but no hose to support it.

BSmack wrote:

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:I get a lot of flack on this board for choosing to live where...here it comes...where... it SNOWS! Oh, the horrah!

I'd rather knock some ice off my windshield than watch my house burn down. Maybe that's just me.

At the rate things are going this season, you may not even have to worry about knocking the ice off your windshield.

It's October 22nd and I'm wearing shorts. Are you fucking KIDDING me?

God I love global warming.

I've taken my kids trick-or-treating in a t-shirt the last two years...this year it seems like it will be a little too cold for that.

The Weather Pussies fear snow and ice. Hell on Earth, to me, was being in SoCal during October and November, in 95+ heat and 95+ humidity. Fuck that baloney.

PSUFAN wrote:

BSmack wrote:

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:I get a lot of flack on this board for choosing to live where...here it comes...where... it SNOWS! Oh, the horrah!

I'd rather knock some ice off my windshield than watch my house burn down. Maybe that's just me.

At the rate things are going this season, you may not even have to worry about knocking the ice off your windshield.

It's October 22nd and I'm wearing shorts. Are you fucking KIDDING me?

God I love global warming.

I've taken my kids trick-or-treating in a t-shirt the last two years...this year it seems like it will be a little too cold for that.

The Weather Pussies fear snow and ice. Hell on Earth, to me, was being in SoCal during October and November, in 95+ heat and 95+ humidity. Fuck that baloney.

The humidity is more like 10% than 95%.

That's what creates the fire danger.

It's actually quite comfortable when the smoke clears.

Just saw pictures of houses burning in Rancho Bernardo. That area is pretty densely built up.

It's a motherfucking desert, you nimrods. Stop trying to pretend you're in a temperate climate. You can't steal enough water to make it habitable.

BURN, WEATHER PUSSIES...BURN!!!!!

Can you throw a stone and hit Bono in Joshua? Are black mothers driving their offspring to your hood and dropping them off when they run out of matchbooks?

I rest my case, smoky.

Mikey wrote:It's actually quite comfortable when the smoke clears.

You're right. But I dig sweatshirts in the fall, and the atmosphere that it creates. And when the winter season ends, it makes appreciating spring and summer that much easier.

Just something about a fall/winter football game in this...



That doesn't seem right.

mvscal wrote:You don't get wildfires in the desert, idiot. Care to guess why that might be?

There are fires because you shitheads have interrupted the natural desert-making process, you awful moron.

PSUFAN wrote:

mvscal wrote:You don't get wildfires in the desert, idiot. Care to guess why that might be?

There are fires because you shitheads have interrupted the natural desert-making process, you awful moron.

You might want to educate yourself just a little bit before spouting off like a complete fool.

Then again, why would you?

Mikey wrote:You might want to educate yourself just a little bit before spouting off like a complete fool.

Since when was that protocol around here?

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:

Mikey wrote:You might want to educate yourself just a little bit before spouting off like a complete fool.

Since when was that protocol around here?

You have a point there.

You thought you'd avoid snow, now it's snowing ash. Props! trev's property values just went down 833%.

quitters.

OK, I'm done now. Hope you guys are able to secure your valuables.

Still blue sky and no smoke here. A lot on the horizon, though. Not even windy.

I'll start worrying when the smoke starts blowing over here. That means that the fire might be following.

I've got the valuable shit in the garage, and the pickup backed up to the door, just in case.

Don't forget to grab a bucket of Heinekens.

yes, it is a fukking desert. maybe not quite full blown sand dunes as far as you can see sahara type desert, but, it pretty much is a fukking desert where nothing much other than cacti and a few grasses grow without stealing water from the hippies in nocal and colorado.

have fun dodging the fires, weather pussies. this is the price you pay for ridiculously nice weather pretty much every fukking day of the year.

gonna be another glorious injun summer day, 70s and clear herer in the U&R. and the foliage is just about peak.

rack global warming, trees and not having to steal water.

PSUFAN wrote:I've taken my kids trick-or-treating in a t-shirt the last two years...this year it seems like it will be a little too cold for that.

The Weather Pussies fear snow and ice. Hell on Earth, to me, was being in SoCal during October and November, in 95+ heat and 95+ humidity. Fuck that baloney.

I wouldn't bet against another warmup going down next week. This "fall" has been about as bizarre as they come up here in WNY. Last week my wife actually suggested we not buy a snowblower for the new house as it wouldn't really be necessary this winter. I told her that she must be suffering from heatstroke.

A couple of hours ago from an empty lot up the street, looking southeast.




Looking south...




Looking northeast. This is the only one that scares me right now. Apparently, though, this one burned up to some avocado groves and pretty much stopped.

smackaholic wrote:yes, it is a fukking desert. maybe not quite full blown sand dunes as far as you can see sahara type desert, but, it pretty much is a fukking desert where nothing much other than cacti and a few grasses grow without stealing water from the hippies in nocal and colorado.

have fun dodging the fires, weather pussies. this is the price you pay for ridiculously nice weather pretty much every fukking day of the year.

gonna be another glorious injun summer day, 70s and clear herer in the U&R. and the foliage is just about peak.

rack global warming, trees and not having to steal water.

You can now join PSU in the corner wearing the dunce hat.

wife actually suggested we not buy a snowblower

Jesus, you leaking vagina! Did you ever hear of a goddamned shovel?

Let me guess...you use the Clapper too, huh?

I can just see you killing a Diet Beer, donning your KMart snowsuit, and electric-starting your "snow blower", when real men are out there using their god-granted shoulders and biceps, then going inside and fucking their wives with their actual penises.

Sack up, BAmenities.

PSUFAN wrote: , then going inside and fucking their wives with their actual penises.

You actually have one of those?

I'm hoping you make sure to clean any remnants of the usual skidmark before using it.

mvscal wrote:You don't get wildfires in the desert, idiot.

http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/lg_fires.htm


For God's sake, shut up.

There's been years in recent memory where Arizona leads all states in wildfire acreage. To get the #1 spot, it's often Oregon you need to beat out, on average.

And newsflash -- well over 75% of the acreage that burns in Oregon annually is in the desert, but it's usually a lot more than 75%.


Nevada is often long on wildfire acreage, as well.


Have you ever actually been to a desert in the Western USA? After winter/spring rains, there isn't any shortage of scrubgrass and sagebrush that will be tinder-dry within a couplefew weeks...

Dumbass.

When I was in Phoenix 2-3 years ago in winter, it was predominately green everywhere, since it had been raining. The locals explained "yup, just more shit to burn come summer." Same as Nevada, same as Oregon, same as Washington. It rains, shit grows, it stops raining, shit dries, it gets low-humidity/high heat, and it burns... just like it's done the last buhzillion years or so.


But I won't get started on the SCAM that is fighting wildfires in unpopulated areas (which obviously doesn't apply to the southwestern corner of california). IT'S FREAKING SCRUBGRASS AND SAGEBRUSH!!!! Guess what -- if you let it burn, it grows back the next time it rains. If you don't let it burn and try and control it -- it grows back the next time it rains. Yeah, that desert ecology is some complicated stuff.

The only shit on my dick comes from Dan Vogel's parrot. Trust me, you don't want mvscal's sloppy seconds.

PSUFAN wrote:Jesus, you leaking vagina! Did you ever hear of a goddamned shovel?

Let me guess...you use the Clapper too, huh?

I can just see you killing a Diet Beer, donning your KMart snowsuit, and electric-starting your "snow blower", when real men are out there using their god-granted shoulders and biceps, then going inside and fucking their wives with their actual penises.

Sack up, BAmenities.

Diet Beer is for drinking to excess. How many times do I have to tell you? Never mind that the last thing I want is to be both drunk and cold.

BTW: What does Pittsburgh get? Maybe 30 inches of snow a year? If that's all we got in Rochester, I'd just use my God granted penis to push the damn shovel.

You mean any place that can get hot and is relatively dry is not necessarily a desert?

They just called for a mandatory evacuation of everything south of Highway 78, north of 56 and betweein the I-15 and the I-5. That now includes a lot of Vista, San Marcos, Rancho Santa Fe, Carlsbad, Oceanside, etc.

Supposedly over 250,000 people are under evacuation orders.

Here are a couple of pics I just took outside my front door. No special effects this is how it is looking.

Looking towards the southeast.



Looking towards the northwest.



Reflection of the sun off the back of my rig.



Mikey for perspective, i'm in Cardiff just west of the 5 and north of Birmingham. It's sounding like Rancho Santa Fe is getting ready to go up.

Wow.

Newsfalsh -- MOST of Oregon and Washington is arid or semi-arid. These two states are routinely among the "leaders" in wildfire acreage. Some of that is in the mountainous areas, where winter snowpack makes for some stands of pine and whatnot, which are prime for burning. But much of it is in the arid scrubland, where the scrubgrass and sagebrush provide more than adequate fuel for a massive wildfire, which is a much more common scenario than a forest fire, which is generally a more drantic event, and usually occurs in the transition zones between arid areas and wetter climates, for instance the eastern slopes of the Cascades.

MOST of the wildfire acreage around these parts(which tends to have more wildfire acreage than anywhere else) happens in the desert. Period. Fact. The Buscuit Fire of a few years ago being a notable exception, although that season provided the perfect blueprint for huge fires in non-arid regions. The regions where many of the fires occur have fairly similar annual precipitation to Phoenix, and that part of the world. That's why they call it "desert." But this strange notion that deserts universally have no vegitation is pretty silly. Has more to do with soil composition, and proximity to a source of water, such as springs or streams. Rocky soil at elevations above stream/groundwater level = little vegitation. Proximity to a reliabe water source, or silty/sandy/loose soils = heavy growth of sagebrush and scrubgrass, and pondo pines if all of those variables line up right.


Same freaking story, every year.

You mean "forest" and "desert" aren't the same thing?

Hey, isn't this a lovely picture from the Alvord Desert?





Yeah, it's a pretty tough stretch of the imagination to picture all that sagebrush going up in flames under the right weather conditions, eh?


And here's one from not too far away:





Hmmmm.... different soil composition, precluding much vegitation, despite the collection of water in the basin. Not a good candidate for a w wildfire, but right up the road from the last pic.

But further up the highway in the Alvord Desert, which lies in the High Desert Ecological Province (nothernmost end of the Great Basin), what do we have?





Hmmm... looks like some sort of fescue, or some other sort of desert scrub. Gee, I wonder if you got that really dried out on a hot day with 0% humidity, if it would burn very well? Hmmmmm.......



Matter of fact, those silly academic-types and scientists that spend their days studying the shit have this to say about the pic -- "Concentric bands of vegetation on a shallow lakebed in Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, in High Desert Province, Oregon. The vegetation bands are related to the frequency, depth, and duration of inundation."


Man, what a novel concept in arid climates, eh?






HOLY SMOKES!!!! Can you believe it? Those 9 inches of rain a year seem to be enough to produce some fuel for wildfires, eh?



But what's this?





Kind of looks like months of zero moisture has dried the desert scrub out quite a bit... but since mvscal has shown me the light, I now realize there's no way a place like this could ever burn, even after multiple dry-lightning strikes.


But then again... maybe the Mojave Desert is more your speed?




Nope, no vegitation there. Not a bit.





Yup, definitely hard to imagine that stuff drying out and burning... in the Mojave.





Now there's a "postcard view" of the Mojave. And maybe I'm crazy, but those green, bushy things have a strong resemblance to "vegitation".... but I'm glad I learned otherwise.


Damn, mv -- you should probably get on the phone and tell all of those climatologists and geographers what's up. You should probably drop the Forest Service a line too, and explain to them that there's no such thing as a fire in the desert.... they've been wasting a lot of time fighting them to date.

Gee, the Mojave Desert is a desert.

Damn Dinsdale you are one smart cookie, and you even know how to link pics.

Guess what? The fires around here aren't burning in the Mojave Desert.

They aren't burning in any desert. The desert is on the other side of the mountains, dumbfuck.