Sidetracked Charley

Dawn of Day Two The two bumps on the left side of the photo above are actual tops of the smoke column from the Ute Park Fire. I am on the safe side of that mountain. Though as a survivor of the Hondo Fire I know there is no safe side. That fire set a ground speed record (no crowning) of nine miles in a half hour. As the crow flies I am about 20 miles from the Ute Park Fire. Too close. But I set for 22 days within a mile of the Hondo Fire. Things I learned from the Hondo Fire 1) The longer you are given to evacuate, the less things you find important enough to take. Note that can include husbands.  2) Animals are important (maybe more important than husbands) and every evacuation plan should include them. 3) If you cannot take cows and horses cut your fences so they can flee. 4) Stay put until told when and how to leave. 5) You are never too tired to be totally (and instantly) awake the minute the wind shifts. 6) I will never forget the sound of an exploding Ponde...

Smoke from Arizona Fires Last Monday, as my frequent readers know, it was on the eighth day or more of damp and sometimes rainy weather with heavy clouds. Here in the mountain southwest we all go a bit crazy if we don't see the sun every day. However, the rainy weather did a lot to give us a burst of green this week. Spring greens The air was so clear and so fresh it almost sparkled. And the Aspens did their best to add that wonderful spring green as they leafed out overnight it seemed. Eclipse behind clouds Clouds partly obscured the eclipse last night but the sky was so blue. Then this morning the air smelled like smoke. And what I thought might at first be fog did not clear when the sun came up. Smokey Mountains I have the New Mexico Wildfires site book marked on my browser so when the haze did not go away I looked at the fires currently burning in New Mexico. None were up wind from us. But the three in Arizona are. If you have been close to the fro...

Lenticular Cloud Not my picture. In fact not my cloud or my mountain though I find myself longing for both. But I used to have tons of pictures of lenticular or wedding cake clouds. Another loss to the computer nerd. And clouds we seem to have lost to current weather (or lack thereof). But I thought I saw some beginning lenticular's yesterday. Lenticular clouds ( Altocumulus lenticularis) are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally aligned perpendicular to the wind direction. Lenticular clouds can be separated into altocumulus standing lenticularis (ACSL), stratocumulus standing lenticular (SCSL), and cirrocumulus standing lenticular (CCSL). Due to their shape, they are often mistaken for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). Per Wiki My pilot father was known to say that Lenticular's heralded a change in the weather. They often position themselves between wet and dry fronts. And here in the mountains of New Mexico we see them, this time...