And I just picked up the hardcover at my library! Alas, I must work for several more hours before I can get into it.
Last week, I heard an interview with the author on “Here and Now” and knew I had to read it. Sure enough, the library had a copy, and now I’m about halfway through it. I do know how the story ends, and I’ve learned a few new “big words”, which he uses a lot of; the best one was “infandous”, a concept too horrible to verbalize.
My dad was a retired firefighter, and I’m thankful he never had to do anything like this. That tar sands themselves are not flammable was quite interesting as well. I have, of course, looked at Google Images of Fort McMurray, and that city is VERY densely populated, with one house right next to the other one, and not just in the man camps and mobile home courts.
p.s. I’ve read John Hersey’s classic, “Hiroshima.” There’s a lot of overlap in the descriptions of the firestorms, with this one at least not being radioactive.
I’m about 5/6th done with “Fire Weather.” I’m going to contact the publisher (he doesn’t appear to have a website or active social media) and ask if they’re going to do a Junior Edition. This book screams for one.
Plus ça change…
The hellish future of global climate change is unfolding.
Very real risk of losing a national jewel
Truly one of the most beautiful parts of the country, along with parts of northern Ontario – which are also vulnerable to wildfires.
Those who predicted climate change would benefit Canada because of warmer temperatures might want to rethink that proposition.
California bought or leased a lot of planes and choppers, and now a lot of little fires are out within hours. Even in this oppressive heat (and Socal is only high 90s or low triple digits around here, I fear for those in AZ etc with 120, etc.)
I have relatives out there, i will have to check in on them.
I’d like to think that I doomscroll climate news enough that I would have heard about it earlier, but I only learned from a Simpsons subreddit that this week contained the hottest days on record, possibly in the history of humanity. Of course I opened the post just to see how many people replied with the meme “the hottest day ever recorded so far”.
CNN had a story two days ago about it.
There’s a story today about a tourist in Death Valley burning his feet:
A 42-year-old Belgian tourist was hospitalized after suffering third-degree burns on his feet Saturday while walking in sand dunes in California’s portion of Death Valley National Park as temperatures soared above 120 degrees, according to the National Park Service.
The man, whose name has not been released, lost his shoes as he was taking a short walk in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, where the air temperature was 123 degrees Fahrenheit and the ground temperature “would have been much hotter,” according to a park service news release.
I very much fear we are going to see more and more uncontrollable infernos charging out of the forests into inhabited areas.
I saw on another source that he was wearing flip-flops, while hiking no less.
That was from fires ion Quebec and Ontario, though. There is no significant wildfire issue in eastern Canada at all right now. The West and North are getting it really bad.
Lat’s hope eastern Canada continues to be spared.
My sister’s family just spent three weeks touring around the areas that happened to get an effect from the fires: Banff, Lake Louise etc. Since she lives in fire-prone LA, she said it’s perhaps easier to empathize with Canadians dealing with it.
My sister said all though this was a minor observation of course that the water from faucets was smoky. Of course that’s nothing if you’re protecting property or evacuating.
So, haven’t seen any news lately about the wildfires in Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the USA, but they must still be raging, since here in coastal New England we’ve been getting a high haze from the smoke that’s traveled across the continent to us. It’s worse in the upper part of New England and I don’t think so far it’s getting below Connecticut.
Fires in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest haven’t been as widespread this year (so far). Map here: https://www.dnr.wa.gov/Wildfires
Caused enormous damage in Jasper. This year has been cooler and had more rain than many. Hopefully the multiple levels of governments have better coordination, contacts and contingency plans than previous.
Yeah–looks like Main Street is pretty much gone. Sounds like a buddy’s house is still standing but conditions were unknown a few weeks ago. The news was saying that a lot of unburned houses had serious smoke and water damage issues. The whole situation with private vs. Park property probably makes it even more of a shitshow.
They’ve been pretty bad and some records are falling. Oregon has already had more acres burned since reliable records began (that is back to just 1992) and there are still many weeks of burning left to do.
In Saskatchewan, we’ve been getting a lot of smoke drifting in this week from BC and Alberta, but the temps have been much lower than last year, so it’s not so much and not so unbearable as it was last year.
I actually like the smell of the smoke when it’s not heavy and the temps are in the teens.