Wildfire 2023

[Meadow Skipper]

Fuel loading would be a pretty useful to consider in a Wildland Fire Potential Outlook, you'd think.

They track it closely on a local basis, be assured. Those NIFC maps are for national planning and resource allocation purposes, fire Geographic Areas and local units like National Forests, National Parks, and BLM and state districts all track their fuel loading, usually by monitoring established plots. And the agency representatives at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) keep up on their field units to coordinate preparedness, suppression, and so forth.

[bodywhomper]

Those maps are relative to a local/regional average, right?

Regardless, they raised my eyebrows when considering several sets of friends that left the California WUI for Vermont and Michigan specifically cuz if wildfire season stress.

[yeahman]

You can run but you can't hide.

[Meadow Skipper]

Those maps are relative to a local/regional average, right?

Yeah, those ones above are on a pretty gross scale, really they’re pretty much just for the public, the media, and clueless high level land managers and politicians.

The tight and useful data and info is generated and used at the local and regional level.

[gravitylover]

Upper Midwest and the northeast are looking at some terrible air quality the next few days, aqi between 100-200.

[mcphee]

^air quality has been shit here all of may and now into June. No rain, Canadian smoke, tree pollen, and cottonwood cotton are wreaking havoc on our respiratory systems.
Bike trails have been nice though so there’s that.

[neufox47]

Upper Midwest and the northeast are looking at some terrible air quality the next few days, aqi between 100-200.

You’ll get sympathy from the western states when you hit 400+.

[buttahflake]

Yeah, I’ve lived in New England my whole life, I’ve never seen the air like this ever before. It’s fucking weird.

[jackstraw]

Last yr we had a few days by my house, but this is not normal.

[bodywhomper]

Y’all mean, it hasn’t been normal… it definitely may change.

What’s it like in NE when the pine forests burn?

The horrible smoke that affected the Bay Area after Paradise burned down got the attention of big economic and political forces in the Bay Area, like the Bay Area Council. Bay Area Council is like the Chamber of Commerce for the entire Bay Area and has some sway at all levels of government. They have now added wildfire mitigation and forest health as one of their key areas of focus and lobby and advocate for improvements at all levels of government. Hopefully, there is similar movement and actions in the PNW. Getting NE economic and political forces behind federal forest health legislation would help getting more boots on the ground more quickly.

[buttahflake]

The fires are nowhere near us, no idea what it would be like if they were actually in our vicinity. We’ve never actually had huge burns in New England. The smoke we are dealing with is blowing down on strong north winds out of Canada

[t-the-east]

It’s been awful in the Adirondacks the past few days. You can barely see the mountains. Definitely starting to feel it in my lungs. Reminds me of living in Missoula during college.

[From_the_NEK]

You’ll get sympathy from the western states when you hit 400+.

The most severe reports in New England/New York/southern Quebec are between AQI 119 (Rutland) and 214 (Ottawa). My location in the NEK is only 60 but it will probably increase during the afternoon as the very strange hot/dry north wind brings more smoke south.
AQI of 400 must be insane.

[From_the_NEK]

NEK Vermont this morning. A mix of smoke and valley fog made for weird lighting.


Dystopian hell edit:

[buttahflake]

Current AQI at my place is 110, less than thirty miles west it’s 160. Never have I seen numbers like this here.
Edit: we’re now at 126

[gravitylover]

You’ll get sympathy from the western states when you hit 400+.

It's not just the number it's the kind of trees that are burning, but you know that too. A lot of what we're dealing with is from leafy green trees that are burning because of the fuel loads on the ground (or standing like Ash trees).

The fires are nowhere near us, no idea what it would be like if they were actually in our vicinity. We’ve never actually had huge burns in New England. The smoke we are dealing with is blowing down on strong north winds out of Canada

Last week we had dense smoke from some big fires in NJ, it made my nose wrinkle and I can't smell shit. That was fun.

I saw pics from some hollows on the N and NW side of the Daks with under a mile visibility, don't know what that translates to on the AQI scale but I don't want to have to breathe that.

[t-the-east]

Current AQI at my place is 110, less than thirty miles west it’s 160. Never have I seen numbers like this here.
Edit: we’re now at 126

Just looked up ours, we’re at 170 in the adk. Crazy

[half-fast]

194 in Syracuse

[el hefe]

Been smoking hot here in the Smokanagan since May and the forecast looks the same. Just a matter of time before we say bye bye to summer. Bonus is that the lake is super warm already, best get the surfing in now.

[Norseman]

NE got the worst smoke on the continent currently

[gravitylover]

I saw a couple of AQI readings in the 300 range an hour ago. Yuck.

[JimmyCarter]

This was the view of Newark airport driving up the NJTP this afternoon

[From_the_NEK]

You’ll get sympathy from the western states when you hit 400+.

Here you go...

[From_the_NEK]

The brown dots are 350+ AQI.

[skaredshtles]

Here you go...