West Coast Fire Thread

[Soloist]

Is the smoke so bad that they have closed airports? If so, I have an idea of how bad it is there for you. This sometimes happened in Brazil during the burning season (especially for pilots only licensed for visual), which is more or less now, depending on the particular year, and where in Brazil you are. When we WERE allowed to fly (Cessna 206) it was a great relief to get up above the smoke, because it was the only time you weren't breathing it, often times for months at a time. It wasn't so bad in the village, as they are really isolated, and so just a small population in a vast area of virgin jungle.

(By the way, I have a brother who lives in Portland.)

I haven't heard anything about the airports closing, but I am very confident they are not allowing visual right now only IFR

[Ken]

Is the smoke so bad that they have closed airports? If so, I have an idea of how bad it is there for you. This sometimes happened in Brazil during the burning season (especially for pilots only licensed for visual), which is more or less now, depending on the particular year, and where in Brazil you are. When we WERE allowed to fly (Cessna 206) it was a great relief to get up above the smoke, because it was the only time you weren't breathing it, often times for months at a time. It wasn't so bad in the village, as they are really isolated, and so just a small population in a vast area of virgin jungle.

(By the way, I have a brother who lives in Portland.)

Airports are open. The visibility is not terrible for flying. It's over a mile. There is just a LOT of dispersed particulate ash in the air and you can smell it with every breath. It isn't like the volcanic eruptions that actually do close airports.

[Josh]

West Coast fires are going to be a problem that gets worse and worse. The ecology there seems to indicate many species depend on regular forest fires to reproduce, anywhere from 5 - 30 years, for example, in the Sierra Nevada. The Native Americans who used to control the territory accepted this and even would set their own fires.

Simply put, modern development with timber framed houses and other flammable materials near the urban interface with the forest means a lot of man made development is going to keep burning up.

As I’m fond of saying, if you think it’s hot now . . .

[Soloist]

West Coast fires are going to be a problem that gets worse and worse. The ecology there seems to indicate many species depend on regular forest fires to reproduce, anywhere from 5 - 30 years, for example, in the Sierra Nevada. The Native Americans who used to control the territory accepted this and even would set their own fires.

Simply put, modern development with timber framed houses and other flammable materials near the urban interface with the forest means a lot of man made development is going to keep burning up.

As I’m fond of saying, if you think it’s hot now . . .

There will likely be a renewed focus on controlled brush burns which would be great.

[Judas Maccabeus]

My daughter in the Bay Area was sending us pictures of orange sky, and that 50 miles from the fire. Lots of ash, I would more worry about the engines sucking that visibility. They know how to land in some fog at SFO.

With winds like that, and dry brush, don't ever count out power lines as an ignition source, or something as silly as someone driving a car over dry brush, and the catalytic converter igniting the grasses. That has even happen here in the "wet" east.

J.M.

[Ken]

My daughter in the Bay Area was sending us pictures of orange sky, and that 50 miles from the fire. Lots of ash, I would more worry about the engines sucking that visibility. They know how to land in some fog at SFO.

With winds like that, and dry brush, don't ever count out power lines as an ignition source, or something as silly as someone driving a car over dry brush, and the catalytic converter igniting the grasses. That has even happen here in the "wet" east.

J.M.

One of the biggest problem in dry country is loose tow chains dragging on the pavement and sparking up dry grass and such. So many people with camping trailers and work trailers don't tighten up their tow chains and they spark fires. That's more a problem starting grass fires in hot arid areas than in forested areas. But it still happens in forested areas: https://kiem-tv.com/2018/08/14/15-fires ... ow-chains/

[RZehr]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/12/business ... index.html
“Facebook says it's removing false claims about who started Oregon wildfires”

[MaxPC]

West Coast fires are going to be a problem that gets worse and worse. The ecology there seems to indicate many species depend on regular forest fires to reproduce, anywhere from 5 - 30 years, for example, in the Sierra Nevada. The Native Americans who used to control the territory accepted this and even would set their own fires.

Simply put, modern development with timber framed houses and other flammable materials near the urban interface with the forest means a lot of man made development is going to keep burning up.

As I’m fond of saying, if you think it’s hot now . . .

There will likely be a renewed focus on controlled brush burns which would be great.

Agreed. There was a study some years ago that spoke of the regular fires that occur in the region, even before it was occupied by settlers. Some of the vegetation there will not propagate without those fires.

[Ken]

Montage of smoke rolling into the Portland area over the past several days

[RZehr]

That’s neat. I hope it rolls on back out soon. This current situation is nasty.