It's been unusually dry here since the first of the year. Perhaps the effects of a La Nina (any input Doc?).

Anyway, on my drive home today I noticed a lot of smoke increasing as I got closer to home. Turns out a developer was clearing some land a 1/4 mile up the road and allowed a fire of downed trees to get out of control. It spread through the underbrush and trees up the mountain before the fire department could organize a proper response.

We've been showered with smoke and ash all evening as a result but no live embers up to now.

Whew!

 

They're probably just trying to get the undergrowth under control.

 

Nah, the creek's about 1/8 mile to the east.

 

We're in pretty severe drought conditions down here (believe it or not), and I'm not surprised that things in the SE generally are hurting. This time of year, the winter storm track is usually the culprit, and it tends to be controlled more by North Pacific ocean surface temperatures than by the tropics.

We've also been having brush & grass fires, to the point that they're having to shut down sections of the Florida Turnpike and I-95 now and then. They keep talking about water restrictions, but so far, lawns win. HPH

 

Lawns win here so far as well. Our drinking water comes from the mountain - no one really knows the source or the route it takes to get to the underground spring it comes from.

All I know is it doesn't require much more than a bit of chlorination and fluoriniation to make it palatable.

The fire's out now apparently. But it stinks like hell.

 

We will get them all summer long up here. Our air quality will get bad towards the end of summer. Just in time to start football two-a-days.

 

What lawn? Ours died when we didn't have our rainy season last year. I think I'm going to spray paint the dead grass and dirt green and fire the yard guy!

 

[quote name='valentine' date='Mar 14 2007, 06:46 PM'] They're probably just trying to get the undergrowth

 

The media was making the public aware of the problem here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, as two weekends ago there were thirty-six brush fires in the Commonwealth caused by people burning trash. Over four hundred acres when up in smoke.

 

It is not legal to burn trash in our state. It is not even permitted to burn backyard rubble, but some folks do that anyways.