2022 Fire Season

[azbackpackr]

Well, here we go...

A fire out past Doney Park, northeast of Flagstaff, is fairly close to where I spend my summers. I was going to move my car there tomorrow. But I guess I won't be moving it there just yet. I'll park it somewhere else.

And... a friend and I were going to start a little bicycle tour over by Prescott, on Thursday. But part of our route is under a closure, due to the Crooks fire.

[joebartels]

[DixieFlyer]

Flag moves to stage3 fire restrictions:
https://twitter.com/MayorDeasy/status/1 ... RRVMueHynw

[nonot]

Another new one showed up today that may affect people's hiking and backpacking plans:
Raspberry Fire burning in the Chiricahuas - appears to be lightning caused.
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8162/

[nonot]

Reports that the Pipeline fire is now 31% contained, and that a lot of resources are focused on preserving Lockett Meadow and the inner basin area.
...
I hope that Lockett Meadow is saved

It seems like your hopes will come true, there is no significant fire activity west of highway 89 in the last 12 hours. I'm guessing they went all-in on the air attack strategy today.

[azbackpackr]

@DixieFlyer
Seriously have tried to avoid getting myself on any more social media accounts. This one about Stage 3 fire restrictions won't open for me because I don't have an account.

Here's a link that is open to us twitless folk:
https://www.knau.org/knau-and-arizona-n ... ons-friday

[DixieFlyer]

This is the process to close a national forest: " At Tuesday’s public meeting, Nick Glidden from the Coconino National Forest said they submitted a request to regional forest officials to close the forest until enough rain falls to reopen it. Fire officials say closing the forest isn’t the easiest, or quickest, process. They have to put together evidence and submit a request to regional offices. If it passes a committee, it goes to the national office, which again has to pass a committee before the closure is approved."

https://gcmaz.com/kaff-news/kaff_news/f ... come-soon/

[SuperstitionGuy]

@DixieFlyer
Meanwhile Rome Burns!!!!!

[FOTG]

@DixieFlyer

They have to put together evidence and submit a request to regional offices

I am actually ok with this, I do not think closing a forest should be a unilateral decision or a decision made on a whim. I completely understand the context of wanting to get Coco closed, but if other forest are going to follow suit, I think the above process seems fair. Why is the forest closing? What evidence is justifying the closure? What is the science behind it etc? Those all seem like fair questions that should go into any decision that bars the public from the forests they fund.

[chumley]

@FOTG So people with no education or understanding of forest management, conditions, weather forecasts, available resources, etc. who yell loudest on social media shouldn’t be the final word? This doesn’t sound like a very 2022 process to me!

[xsproutx]

@chumley
"BuT We LiVe Up HeRe"

[Grimey]

Inciweb syas the Fish fire is 909 acres, maybe true but Apline was socked in hard with smoke yesterday afternoon. Seemed like a lot of smoke for less than 1000 acres, but I am not even an internet expert, so who knows. The Blue River area south of 60/E of 191 was too smoky to enjoy camping.

Meanwhile appears Kitt Peak is in Go status due to the Contreras fire.

Pic is of Fish fire smoke from 273/Crescent Lake area.

[FOTG]

@Grimey

IDK if the picture looks overly alarming, it seems to make sense Alpine could be getting socked in to a degree, but I do hope that doesn’t mean things are getting away from them up there. I think I saw another small brush fire near Alpine on a fire tracking page a few days ago, but I don’t see it now. Sucks you got smoked out up there. I am doing a lot of wishful thinking on this one and hoping the rain in the forecast for the area comes through and some trigger happy fire boss doesn’t decided to commence the aerial ignitions.

I am seeing about 3 days of 60 and up to 80 percent chances for precip at the location of fire, fingers crossed. If things don’t change, I’ll be heading out Monday for a week, thanks for the update.

[ddgrunning]

A nice interactive map of the Pipeline and Haywire fires:

https://mappingsupport.com/p2/gissurfer ... d_fire.txt

[nonot]

@FOTG @Grimey
Overnight and this morning, and predicted again on the 18th, is for an inversion layer to form and trap a lot of smoke in the Alpine/Eager area. There is a bit of a breeze forecast this afternoon and especially tomorrow that may blow some/most of the smoke away on those days.

This is per CMAQ smoke forecast modelling which can be accessed via Websky (for anyone interested.)

[FOTG]

@nonot

Smoke attributed to the Fish Fire may be visible in Round Valley, Alpine, AZ, and Reserve, NM. An interactive smoke map at https://fire.airnow.gov/ allows you to zoom into your area to see the latest smoke conditions.

It is up to 1900 acres now. They just released some new info on it, and a press release earlier today, but they do not seem overly worried about it.

[Grimey]

IDK if the picture looks overly alarming,

Sorry I should have been clear, I was just posting a pic of the smoke, not trying to alarm anyone. This was actually in the morning just before I went through Alpine the first time. When I first went through, Alpine wasn't all that smoky, the smoke was more south. After poking around the area down by Blue Crossing and up into New Mexico I came back to Alpine and it was pretty thick in town. Sucks for the folks who live there but I suppose it's part of the package deal living in such a great place. Man my eyes and sinuses though, holy moley.

The NM side actually wasn't too bad and I could have camped there, but that would have meant setting up camp at 3 PM. Not sure what I would have done for the next 5 hours... I make for pretty poor company.

I met a nice older *cough* lady hauling hay bales on the NM side who was pretty worried about the smoke she saw, but I put her at ease (at least a little I hope) letting her know the fire was small and well west of the 191. Apparently she and her husband live by themselves & their animals way back in there. I'm kind of jealous of them but certainly can understand the worry.

[00blackout]

@Grimey
Fish fire looks like it's definitely picking up momentum. Smoke plume is pretty big for a 'smaller' fire.

[FOTG]

@00blackout

Ya that doesn’t look great does it? This fire is starting to remind me of the bad one on Graham a few years ago, they used a lot of the same language, old burn scar, too dangerous to get to, not going to be a problem and then a half mountain top later, sigh. Of course the fire is moving into Double Cienega now. I mean I remember some pretty heavily forested areas surrounding that meadow, but lots of burn areas too I guess. Sometimes I wonder if they even know what is out there, or are aware that there are people who know what is actually out there, but I am glad they are not worried about it and I will let them be the pros. I hope they are right on this one for a change. They don’t get many of them right that is for sure. Pics are Double Cienega Meadow and our campsite there take during our Memorial Weekend there this year.

24 hours: Fire could be established in Double Cienega and move to the north and reach 2500 acres within
heavy burn scar area. No expected large runs. Short uphill runs through grass may be expected if fire gets established below in drainages, with little adverse effects

[cactuscat]

Lockett Meadow is ok!

https://www.facebook.com/10006485439355 ... UGHNNR3kl/

[FOTG]

They have reported some rain on the Fish Fire and the picture they posted along with the updates seem promising. It may turn out to be just what that area needed, hopefully it takes out a bunch of hangers and deadfall. Looks pretty green in the pic they posted, hard to imagine those higher elevations are in that great of danger, but there is going to be a lot of lightning out there this weekend, I hope nothing ignites in the lower dryer country off the rims out there.

Friday June 17th has brought between .25 and .5 inches of rain for the general area of the fire. The next 5 days are expected to have significant rainfall in the forecast.