Forum Discussion

myredracer's avatar
myredracer
Explorer II
Sep 06, 2017

Wildfires are bad this year in the PNW

Have never seen it this bad in my nearly 65 years of living in the southwest corner of BC. It's about 9:30 am and the sun is a dull orange ball from all the smoke. It was dark all day yesterday from the smoke and smelled of smoke. The smoke was trapping heat and preventing it from escaping into the atmosphere - got really humid and also very warm for Sept.

The smoke is apparently mostly from Wa. state and some from Oregon. There is a bad fire east of Portland up the Columbia Gorge. Last month BC was sending smoke into Washington, but things are much worse now and is coming up to us fro WA. Two summers ago was bad for wildfires around here but this is even worse. Last summer was fairly "normal".

It rained almost non-stop every day this spring here, and at the start of summer, the clouds suddenly disappeared and never came back.
Just had to get a tanker truck fill our surface well for the first time and decent rain could be months away.

Glad we went on our annual RV-ing vacation in early August this year instead of the usual Aug./Sept. Have been thinking of an early fall trip to a CG in the Cascades in WA or OR but may have to head out to the coast. It's looking like the next couple of months are going to be dry which will not be good for wildfires. Almost made it to Yellowstone NP last summer but bailed out at last minute due to a fire nearby in Montana.

This is an interesting 12 minute video of fighting wildfires in Colorado from a firefighter's perspective and how climate change is affecting it. Fighting Colorado Widfires. Don't want to debate climate change, but all the scientific evidence is out there and what it's doing and what the predictions are for the future.
  • We are at 3 months with no rain and record heat and fires following record spring flooding in bc interior. All the human causes fires (no storms so no lightning)make me very sad. Saw a fool in an Audi drop a cig butt out his window and wanted to run him off the road. Wow people are fools.
  • Eastern Washington and northern Idaho is totally bogged in the smoke too. Unlike the coastal area, we are at least 10 degrees cooler due to it blocking the sun (the only silver lining). Nobody is outside longer than necessary for almost a week now. It's crazy. This last 12 months have been filled with weather extremes around here to such an extent, that many outdoor projects of mine have died on the vine, including needed RV maintenance.
  • No more smoke hanging around our area of Western WA (San Juan islands). It's dull and raining hard this morning, so those are rain clouds, not smoke.
  • Forecast for today was an insignificant sprinkle of rain less than 1mm (approx. 1/16"). Woke up this morning to heavy rainfall instead. It's not often I welcome rain around here but this is wonderful. The sun is supposed to return on Sunday. Hope it is at least cooler from now on.

    This has been an unprecedented year for forest fires in BC with over 2.7 million acres affected to date. We need a lot more rain in the coming weeks to get the fires under control and there isn't any heavy and sustained rain in the forecast yet. It's expected there will be a significant impact on the forestry industry.

    A high temp. record was smashed this past Monday at 38C (100F). It's been so dry and crispy around our province, it doesn't take much for a fire to start.

About RV Tips & Tricks

Looking for advice before your next adventure? Look no further.25,102 PostsLatest Activity: Jan 18, 2025