Interesting things you learn while monitoring so many web sites for wildfires

[MountainDon]

Rock Snot and Whirling Disease also formidable foes for wildland firefighters


Yes once again we have a wildfire in the neighborhood.    The Thompson Ridge Fire here in the Jemez in NM.

It is close enough to us, about 4 1/4  miles nearly straight north of the cabin. It went from 0 to 20,000+ acres in 9 days. Tree fell on a powerline just like the Las Conchas in 2011. If anyone is curious there are some Google Earth placemarks (kmz files) available on the GeoMac website. you should be able to download and then see the fire progress up to the last google earth data overlay that has been posted to date. (June 7 as of right now.) They display the fire outline laid over the Google Earth image.

But it has grown. Newest map I have is at InciWeb


Other info 


It has been educational watching the fire as it went west to east over Redondo Peak over the course of an hour or so. Seeing the new little fires breaking out 1/4 or so ahead and down the slope. That was the view right out the cabin front window (6-0 x 4-0 for the curious builders) 

Also of interest... the ground, plants, trees, grasses are so dry we saw the fire moving slowly but certainly, down slopes and into the winds.   And we had great seats to see the DC10 tanker doing it's 12,000 gallon retardant drops.

[Don_P]

It is a problem, besides the fire! good luck. One of our invasives, japanese stiltgrass, seems to travel on the heavy road equipment, we didn't have it 20 years ago, now it seems to be running into the woods from every roadside.

[MountainDon]

For those here in NM or who have heard of the Valles Caldera National Preserve (89,000 acres), by my figures over half of it has burned since 2011. Most of the Thompson Fire is in the VCNP and 30,000 of the Las Conchas) Guv'mint spent 101 million taxpayer dollars for it a decade ago. We'll have a front row center seat for the reclamation I hope.

[MountainDon]

photos

[cholland]

I work as a Resource Advisor (READ), on local fires. It's good work. Besides trying not to spread invasive species, we protect other sensitive resources. Mostly historic and pre-historic sites. Don't want to run a dozer over them, or burn up an old cabin. Also monitor the retardant drops and try to keep it out of the waterways.
Good way to make a bunch of overtime and have more cash for building!
I live about a mile from the end of the airport here, there are two S2 tankers and a helicopter stationed here every fire season. They fly almost every day.

Another site for following fires is:
Wildlandfire.com

Check out the Hotlist forum. It follows initial attack and what resources are being deployed. Also huge photo gallery. If your into that sort of thing.

[hpinson]

It will be interesting to see where this fire takes Bingaman and Heinrich's push towards a national park for the caldera.  So much of the preserve is now burned. I was just wondering the other day, looking at a view of the fires from space, what percentage of the forests in the Jemez Mountains have burned in the last 15 years.  Heading home last weekend I passed the fire scar northeast of Regina and west of Gallina, and there is little healing or reclamation. Mostly I saw erosion of soil and ground cover on the steep slopes, and bare bedrock emerging.  I wonder if this landscape is soon going to resemble the mountains east of Los Angeles -- burned and reburned with mostly scrub oak cover.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear the fire is moving north and away from you and all the others in the Thompson Ridge area.  Sad to hear that the Silver Fire is approaching the town of Kingston (home of many historic little houses) today.

[flyingvan]

Here's the view I get...

  On the big fires I'm voluntold to manage the National Guard resources.  This is a 2,000 gallon Bambi bucket under a Chinook.
  But day to day operations is more dealing with the challenges of a coastal city---hoist work,

  and lots of canyon fires.  We're one of three agencies in the country that fight fire from the air at night. 


  The night firefighting is a pretty 'hot topic'....Of course, I'm an advocate...You get the sky to yourself, it's cooler so we can lift more and the drops are more effective, there are less people on the ground to worry about.

[MountainDon]

Thompson Fire is pretty much a done deal now but we still see almost nightly flare ups on the south side of Redondo. With the binocs or spotting scope we can see plenty of browned and blackened patches too, but still more green that I thought there would be.

Come Monday the 24th the forest goes into a public lockdown until further notice. We'll use the key we have and stick to the direct road in; no exploring. Too bad because we got very close to locating some ruins on Virgin Mesa. They are not on any official maps anymore but old maps and books I have from 25+ years ago show them.

hpinson; the Valles Caldera will be open in a very limited way. They will be making possible some viewing of the burnt areas...