HikeArizona.COM

I’ve had the opportunity to fly over the Rodeo fire numerous times over the past few days and was able to get some pretty impressive photos thanks to my First Officer who always carries his digital camera. I’ll send them to Joe and maybe he can post them for all to view. They were taken from about 27,000 feet on Wed. the 19th when the fire was little more than a day old. The area was still fairly concentrated just to the west of Show Low. The surrounding visibility was still excellent providing for clear shots of the fire.

By Friday the thick smoke had completely blanketed the entire area from Four Peaks all the way up to Sunrise Ski area. Payson, Pine Top, and Show Low were completely obscured. The eastern edge of the activity seemed to be getting very close to Show Low.

The most spectacular fire I’ve seen has been the recent Hayman fire in Colorado. It looked like the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb. As we went by at 37,000’, another aircraft at 41,000’ reported the top of the smoke plume at an estimated 45,000’. The amount of heat energy required to boost hot air to that altitude is staggering.

Other than that, one of the most awesome sights I’ve encountered was back in the early nineties when I flew directly over Four Peaks fire at night. In daylight the flames are hard to see, but at night you can distinctly see every burning ember and glowing ash. It was truly like flying straight over the depths of Hell.

I lived in Tempe at the time of the Four Peaks fire and could see it from the balcony of my apartment at night. I imagine it would've been quite a sight to fly right over the top of it. These are the kind of sights I wish no one had to see, though.

:) Would love to see the photos.......Joe

Here's a satellite view of the fire.
http://www.osei.noaa.gov/iod.html
http://www.osei.noaa.gov/

Chill out praireboy, go plow a field

8O Gee did hell freeze over? I think my brother just posted 8O


Anyhow, I'm checking with Fritz. I believe there's a problem with AOL sending to this server. Don't get to ansy, sometimes he's outta town for days.

Just heard on the news...

The evacuation order for showlow has been issued.
They think the 2 fires have merged causing a fire line over 50 miles wide.

amazing

Well, this definitely has the potential to wipe out a good section of the rim forrests as we know them today.

I have to take a long term view of this though (got to find some positive).

Look at Yellowstone as our example. Remember that fire that gutted Yellowstone back in the early 80's? They thought it would ruin the park. Turns out it was the best thing to happen to it ever. The forrests have rebounded back healthier than ever and the wildlife is actually more populace now than it was before the fires.

We may not enjoy the fires now, and they are definitely causing some saddness, loss and heartache...but in the overall scheme of things (looking 10 or 20 years down the line) this may be a very good thing for the health of the forests up there. I know they haven't been looking as healthy as they should recently. I hope that this is the case.

But right now...it sure does suck.

I was amazed yesterday to see the huge plume so clearly from where I live in Ocotillo ( about as far south as you can get in Maricopa county). There isnt all the construction here yet (well its on the way), but the wide open fields allow a great view of all the valley mountain ranges in one shot. Just left of the Four Peaks , the plume looked so huge... like a big nuclear bomb mushroom cloud. I have never seen anything quite like it .
And I hope I never do again. I am just praying they get some type of containment so this can be over and people can get their lives back in order.

Yeah--it sucks. You are right about the very long term good done to the forest. One problem is that oaks and aspen are what grows back--the ponderosas are slow.
The current economic damage to the folks that live there is devastating. Those fancy homes are insured and can be built again in undamaged areas. It looks like quite a few less blessed people are out of a home and out of a job as well.

Got home last nigt to find my pics didn't go through from the road. I'm resending them to Joe right now. The pictures show a fire that is so tiny compared to the behemoth it is now. I'll take my own camera when I go back out again on Fri.

Here they are

http://hikearizona.com/t2002/dated/062302/01.jpg

http://hikearizona.com/t2002/dated/062302/02.jpg

OMG - those pic's are gut wrenching.

I'm curious ~ is that shot from 36K feet? How high do you estimate those plumes were. And, I often worry about those slurry planes. How can they fly in so much smoke? It seems like it would stall their engines.

I emailed Joe a pic that made the email rounds a couple years back during the Montana wildfires to post here when he gets a chance. Its sad.

Oh yes this brings back memories


Montana Fire Photo
http://hikearizona.com/t2002/dated/062302/03.jpg

That's a powerful photo.

Wow! That Montana fire photo is amazing!

The Montana photo really shows what a fire of this magnitude means. That photo has a powerful feel to it.

My heavens! That Montana fire photo is the most powerful image I have ever seen of a forrest fire. Amazing.

I am continually amazed by the awesome power of nature, both for good and bad. Nature builds, over a grand scale of time, the beauty around us - then BANG - fire/earthquake/tornado/avalance/huricane/blizzard - a few seconds/hours later - all gone. Then nature gets back to the longer project of growing it again.

Truly amazing.

This was taken Sunday by NASA

http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/earth/pic ... 020621.jpg

I spent Saturday & Sunday in Taos, NM; Saturday the sky there was clear; Sunday it was smokey and the local radio said it was from the Rodeo fire. Driving from NM on I-40 yesterday, the sun was barely visible through the smoke, but as I approached Winslow I could see blue sky to the west and after Winslow I had blue sky overhead; all the smoke was heading east.