Seriously Scary Sunday
I am writing this post on Monday morning and all is well.
But yesterday was definitely scary – for me! Saturday, the temp rose to 96F as forecast. There was a lot of smoke and Saturday night, a fire blew up 25 miles south of me, along Flathead Lake’s southeastern shore. The fire jumped a fire break and down draft winds drove it towards the lake. There were a lot of evacuations and sadly, a number of homes were destroyed. And … it is a human caused fire … not sure whether accidental or intentional.
***This map added after initial post. The red X is about my location. The site is a national site. I zoomed in to my area. InciWeb the Incident Information System (nwcg.gov)
Sunday was forecast to be 95F with high winds in the afternoon in front of a monsoon moisture/thunderstorm event.
The temperature rose to 97F by mid-afternoon on Sunday with lots of smoke. It unnerved me to the point that I gathered duffle bags for clothes, thermal bags for food and water, an electronics bag and made a list…
The typed list on the left is always on my key rack in my home entry. But, I hand wrote the list on the right to cement in my mind what I would do if necessary. Also, I had no intention of going in the motorhome. The Jeep is more maneuverable and able to go places the motorhome cannot. The fire to the south meant that direction was not available. I am likely making this sound more serious than it was, but I was thinking “worst case, what do I want to do”.
It was so darn hot, dry and smoky … I’m sure it addled my brain a bit.
That is the weather radar about 6:00 p.m. The motion view showed the moisture headed northeast and that cell (red) to pass south of me.
Emmett and I went out just after I looked at this. It was eerily still and quiet … the calm before the storm?
About 5 minutes after we came in the house, the wind started blowing, thunder rumbled and …
Rain!!! Lots of rain, but not so hard as to roll off … It soaked the ground, formed a few puddles and I never saw or heard lightning to ground. From the map, it looked like the area of the fire south of me as well as some other spots with active fires, got rain as well – I hope so.
The temperature dropped 20 degrees F in a little over an hour. And the humidity rose to 100%, but I am NOT complaining!
This morning, it is 67F which is still a warm overnight temperature and the humidity is 99% as 66F is the dewpoint …
So, it is misty, foggy, smoky … but thankfully wet!
I doubt this is a fire season ending event, but we are to get more rain today before 2 days of dry at hot (90F, not upper 90’s) and then more rain followed by cooler than normal temps. While not ending fire danger, if the forecast is correct, it should allow progress on fires and hopefully reduce the smoke.
A slow start to Monday as we (ME!) recover from a seriously scary Sunday.
***A little PSA here … the other thing I did yesterday afternoon, was walk through my entire house and all closets and drawers taking video of my possessions. I also did the garage. The motorhome is mostly empty so skipped that. With the refi I am doing, I have recently adjusted my homeowner’s insurance for current costs of construction and replacement cost for my stuff. I highly recommend. It is easy to do and even if the video is not great, it will be a visual reminder if you ever need to make a claim … a lot easier and less stressful than trying to remember everything. I was too antsy last night, but this morning, I copied the video to my laptop AND to my cloud backup. And while I am lecturing here :) …. all important paperwork can be scanned and similarly backed up to cloud servers. I did all of mine last year with the scan feature on my phone. It went very fast, easy to organize into folders and now I scan docs on receipt. No paper files that you have to keep track of.
6 Responses to “Seriously Scary Sunday”
Liz,
Your description of this situation was frightening. Good job with the prep/planning. It does help to know you have a plan. Last year traumatized me and I collected several plastic totes to use for evacuation if needed. There is a basic plan for getting the living beings out, then a plan if there is a little more time to collect other items. I have been ridiculed over the years for being a “worst case scenario” type of person, but I am just a realist. I would love nothing more than to never have to implement these plans. Hoping for more of the wet stuff for all who need it.
I am also a “worst case scenario” and I believe that prepping for worst case allows me to relax a bit and be in a better place to take care of myself and pets.
We’ve had some more rain this morning at my house. It is hard to see on the map how much is happening elsewhere and the local online news has not caught up yet!
Oh Liz! I can well imagine the fear. I would be the very SAME. We live in an area that could potentially have a similar scenario and last night MY worry was the lightening…..”what if it starts a fire back there in the forest service land?” “what if there really is a fire….its night time! who will know to tell US in time before its too late?” “is that smoke I see out the window or just haze from the rain?” Ahhhhh!!! I’ve thought through the things we’d bring with….and if we had just a “short time vs. a longer” evacuation….what would I do differently, etc. I’m thinking you are right on track with the “writing it down” part though….I think I will do that too.
I do know that God is abundantly good….and I am trying to trust that He will give me the strength to go through such a nightmare if it ever does come to pass.
Sarah, That is literally my nightmare also … a fire on the state land or even my own woods – from a lightning strike. I do know that I would feel a lightning to ground strike as those are somewhat mini-earthquake house rattling if they are even moderately close. I also know that they use reverse-911 to order evac and it can happen fast, but as you said … someone has to see and initiate it. I am so thankful that there was so much rain and temp drop early in the evening, last night.
Onward!
That was a bit scary but at least you got rain. Here we are having the hottest summer temperatures for 40 years and the problem is not the actual temperature, which is around 34 to 40C, but the duration, which is already ten days. Everything is so dry. There are very bad fires in Turkey and some here in Greece but so far this area is OK.
Keep cool!
I hope you get a cooling break and rain!! … soon. That is a horrible long streak of hot and dry.
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