These people need psychological help.
Is the Colorado Wildfire the Future Norm?
The Colorado fires feature “a lot of the characteristics we would expect under climate change,” according to climate scientists.
Total BS. Fires don’t know anything about climate change. When it is hot and dry, the forests burn. Lodgepole Pine seeds can’t even germinate without a fire.
For the past thirty years, residents of tiny Laporte, Colo., near the Wyoming border have gathered inside Bob’s Coffee Shop to swap gossip over coffee and danishes near the dense pine forest of Lory State Park.
Total BS. LaPorte is a suburb of Fort Collins and is 25 miles from Wyoming. The CSU atmospheric sciences building is located almost in LaPorte. One of my kids went to junior high school there. The pine forest in Lory State Park is generally very thin. Much of the park is more like desert than forest. I ride my bike by there about once a week.
Most of Lory State Park doesn’t have any trees because of previous burns. Click below for a larger image to see the old burn scars.
But since the weekend, Bob’s has become a very different kind of social hub: a de facto refugee camp for homeowners fleeing what many here call the worst wildfire in decades. From a booth just a mile and half from the fireline, Bob’s owner Chris McCullough in a phone interview on Monday afternoon described seeing forest ridges ablaze with arching orange flames, a sky blanketed in thick white smoke, and ash falling like snow. At other tables, locals shared updates about the fire’s spread and talked about what they were — and weren’t — able to save from their homes, which may — or may not — still be standing. “It’s the fastest-growing, hottest-burning fire I’ve ever seen,” said longtime resident and Bob’s patron John Brewer, whose home was evacuated Saturday night. “I don’t know how we’re going to survive this one.”
Technology – Climate Desk – Is the Colorado Wildfire the Future Norm? – The Atlantic
Saturday and Sunday were hot and windy. The fire spread quickly for a couple of days, but has almost stopped moving now. It has burned about 40,000 acres – a little more than 1% of the three million acre fires which burned Montana and Idaho in 1910. This fire is much, much smaller than the 1871 fires in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, Connecticut, Ontario … etc.
During the previous two Junes (2010 and 2011) La Porte had a different problem. They nearly flooded from the record snow pack in the mountains. I took this video last June of a fawn stranded on an island which was about to disappear under the flood waters.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgxzOf0dhDA&feature=player_embedded]
I took the pictures below during May 2011, in the mountains above La Porte.
They told us in 2005 that Katrina was the new normal for hurricanes. Since 2005, the US has had no major hurricanes – the longest period on record.
It looks like the “future norm” is in fact the “old norm” recycled:
“AMERICAN FIRES.
FORESTS ABLAZE. TWO STATES SWEPT. APPALLING SCENES.
HUNDREDS KILLED. TRAINS OUTSTRIPPED. SOME NARROW ESCAPES.
Forest fires of a magnitude believed to be unparalleled are raging in the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Whole villages have been destroyed and upwards of 900 lives are estimated to have been sacrificed, whilst the losses of cattle and horses are described as simply incalculable.”
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/25735278
~4 Sep 1894
…or this:
“DISASTERS IN AMERICA.
TERRIBLE FOREST FIRE. TOWNS DESTROYED.
The great forest fire is still raging in the North Atlantic States of America, and is spreading westward to the wooded country in Washington, one of the Pacific States, which is bounded on the north by the Canadian province of British Columbia. The sky is obscured for a distance of 600 miles from the Atlantic seaboard, and the dense volumes of smoke from the conflagration have affected navigation at the seaport of Baltimore, in Maryland.”
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/55432024
~9 Jun 1903
…or this:
“AMERICAN FOREST FIRE.
EIGHT TOWNS DESTROYED.
Eight towns in Northern Wisconsin, one of the Western States of America, have been devastated by forest fires. Thirty persons have been killed. Damage to the extent of one hundred million dollars has been done. A great area of settled land is threatened by the fire, which is still raging.”
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/44500719
~21 May 1906
… or this:
“FOREST FIRES IN AMERICA.
Sanbernardino, Sunday.—A forest fire has ravaged a huge area of country in California. A number of mountain resorts have been destroyed, but the flames are now under control. It is known that a number of Mexicans employed to beat the flames deliberately spread the fire, in order to ensure employment as fire fighters.”
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/80004731
~8 Aug 1911
Well Fort Collins has warmed by about 1C over the last 60 years. On the other hand to attribute this to global warming, you would have to ignore Kassler, DIllion, Telluride, Del Norte, Akron, Climax, Holly, Lamar, Rangely, and so on, that either show no trend or cooling trends… So I guess if you cherry pick and your audience is stupid, it sounds believable.
http://climatetrends.colostate.edu/
The state climatologist manages the Fort Collins weather station. He tells me that the warming is due almost completely to UHI, as the station is located in the middle of a parking lot.
Hot(cold) new article over at Anthony’s worth a look!
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/06/12/the-longest-most-high-resolution-most-inconvenient-paleoclimate-data-that-hasnt-been-published/
I think it originates from Steve McIntyre’s site.
“This fire is much, much smaller than the 1871 fires in Michigan…”
Forest Fires in Wisconsin
Although 1871 was the state’s worst year for forest fires, extensive fires also occurred in 1863, 1864, 1868, 1880, 1891, 1894, 1897, 1908, 1910, 1923, 1931 and 1933. Numerous small fires broke out in every autumn drought season, but by 1925 state fire protection forces were usually able to stop them before they grew into disasters.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=10463&term_type_id=3&term_type_text=Things&letter=F
“It has burned about 40,000 acres..
Big deal!
OCTOBER 7, 1825
The Miramichi Fire – Maine & NB
3 million acres burned and 160 people killed.
1845
The Great Fire – Oregon
1.5 million acres burned
1853
The Yaquina Fire – Oregon
450,000 acres burned
1865
The Silverton Fire – Oregon
1 million acres burned
1868
The Coos Fire – Oregon
300,000 acres burned
SEPTEMBER 1, 1894
Hinckley Fire – Minnesota
160,000 acres burned, destroys the town of Hinkley, Minnesota, and killed 418 persons.
FEBRUARY 16 – 17, 1898
A Series Of Wildfires – South Carolina
up to 3,000,000 acres of forest land were charred.
AUGUST 20 – 21, 1910
The Big Blowup – Idaho and Montana
Over 3 million acres burned
OCTOBER 12, 1918
Cloquet – Minnesota
Over 1.2 million acres burned
http://www.nps.gov/fire/utility/uti_tl_largefirestext.cfm
“Lodgepole Pine seeds can’t even germinate without a fire.”
Entire species have evolved to require forest fires to maintain their existance through future generations, but climate scientist are now certain that forest fires are something unusual, caused by a few ppm of CO2.
These are not scientists, they are rent seeking scare mongers.
In the USA, the worst fires, deadliest flood, worst drought, worst heatwave, worst hurricanes, worst blizzard, worst coldwave, worst tornado all happened at least 75 years ago. In fact the six worst tornadoes in terms of death toll were at least 65 years ago. There is good reason why NOAA wants time to start in 1950.
Are we seriously supposed to trust greedy, agenda driven NOAA scum bags to maintain accurate, unbiased temperature records?