Kevin's Watch

Looks like we'll be washing our cars on a daily basis. We live about seven miles from the southwestern edge, and we've had northerly winds...

Brush Fires Merge, form 16,000 acre blaze

Garage and stuff like that no help?



Hope it doesn't get too much worse, or (dare I suggest it?) gets better.

Tampa Bay area had a thick layer of smoke all day today.
Looked like fog, but smells like burning wood.
Radio announcements say that people with breathing problems should stay indoors,
not that helps any.
Even with my house all closed-up and the AC running, there's still a smokey smell.
From what the telly shows, about 1/2 of Florida has wildfires burning
with a few new ones that just popped up within the last few hours.

No garage, car port only. An that's used for storage as I am still slowly unpacking and arranging items from our move in January...

Cheval wrote:Tampa Bay area had a thick layer of smoke all day today.
Looked like fog, but smells like burning wood.
Radio announcements say that people with breathing problems should stay indoors, not that helps any.
Even with my house all closed-up and the AC running, there's still a smokey smell.

:::nodding:::

We've had that for the past two weeks from the fires in the Okeefonokee Swamp, but no ash. It's getting old.

Cheval wrote:From what the telly shows, about 1/2 of Florida has wildfires burning
with a few new ones that just popped up within the last few hours.

Reminds me of the fire season in 1997. Heh, exactly a decade, interesting.

Perhaps Undine and Jove from the Pantheon will send a good storm (but please, not a hurricane) our way...

If it was one of my swamps it'd be too wet to burn! What type of swamp you got over there?????????

Stonemaybe wrote:If it was one of my swamps it'd be too wet to burn! What type of swamp you got over there?????????

I wasn't sure how to answer this, so here's Paul's description, with a small cynical smile and his usual aplomb...

We've drunk all of the water in the wetlands, and we've been dumping our toxic waste there for at least the last 50 years. We've turned all of the high ground into timber stands, but now that the government subsidies are going away, they have to burn the whole thing down to make room for shopping malls and subdivisions.

A bit simplified, but it makes more sense than the "official" version...

Wow! Sorry to hear about this! If it's not floods up here, it's fires down there, eh?

That about sums it up, Fist...

Menolly wrote:Perhaps Undine and Jove from the Pantheon will send a good storm (but please, not a hurricane) our way...

Tropical Storm Andria off the Eastern seaboard is headed our way.
If the winds don't fan the fires, then maybe the rains will help douse the flames.

Cheval wrote:

Menolly wrote:Perhaps Undine and Jove from the Pantheon will send a good storm (but please, not a hurricane) our way...

Tropical Storm Andria off the Eastern seaboard is headed our way.
If the winds don't fan the fires, then maybe the rains will help douse the flames.

Actually when I heard of sub-tropical storm Andria this morning, I was going to come on and say I take it back!! Last I heard, it is a wind storm with very little rain. Precisely what we don't need to make landfall as the fires burn...

Crazy, crazy, Time to bring out the broom and garden hose?

Balon wrote:Crazy, crazy, Time to bring out the broom and garden hose?

Quite possibly, m'l-rd...

More smoke today. Worse than it was the last few days.
This time ashes covered my truck by noon.
Good thing for dust masks 'cause I'd sure hate to breathing in all this junk.
(I'm a smoker and this mess is making me cough!)

Cheval wrote:More smoke today. Worse than it was the last few days.
This time ashes covered my truck by noon.
Good thing for dust masks 'cause I'd sure hate to breathing in all this junk.
(I'm a smoker and this mess is making me cough!)

:::nodding:::

Apparently the fire up by Lake City doubled in size from 16,000 acres to 30,000 acres. Plus, the entire state is covered with smaller fires all over.

Beorn's school had to cancel P.E. classes today, as they have no gymnasium and usually do their activities outside.

Not good. Not good at all.

Last count: over 220 wildfires and over 180,000 acres scorched!

So is this a natural occurence? I mean, 180,000 seems like a @#$%load.

Well, as natural as drought conditions ever are...

Keep in mind, Florida is a long state with tons of acreage.

So....that's a "yes"?

Heheheh.

Yeah, I guess so, little Lebowski...

:::edit:::

I mean, the fires are probably started by drivers tossing cigarette butts out of their car windows, or 'controlled' burns getting out of control. But, if we weren't in drought conditions, such things wouldn't set them off to begin with.

I can't wait till I get the Little Lebowski teeshirt.

Good to know it's not some ravaging end of the world thing. 'Cause thats how it sounds. So are you guys in danger from the flames? Or just the ash/smoke?