Colorado is on fire

The problem is.....whenever a thunderstorm comes through.....what's the one major factor with it......WIND.

 

Is it even safe to breathe in Colorado Springs right now?

 

The weather in Colorado has been insane this summer.

 

He's fine and on his honeymoon right now. In the Virgin Islands, I believe.

 

My cousin lives in Colorado Springs. I believe the phrase he used to describe things yesterday was "Hell on Earth." I've lived in Los Angeles for half of my life and dealt with some particularly nasty wildfires, but this is totally on another level.

Here's a photo my cousin posted to his Facebook page yesterday (I don't think he took it, though):

 

I'm surprised my in-laws have been spared over the years as they live pretty high up in the foothills and it's pretty dry up there. They had a close call several years ago when a fire came within 2-3 miles of them.

 

Has there been a history of fire suppression in Colorado? That's always one thing that comes up in California when wildfires hit -- we are reminded again that because we have built out so far into the wilderness, for a hundred years we have been stopping natural fires instead of letting them clear out the underbrush. So now any fires that do get started are tremendously worse. People have been predicting doom for Tahoe for this very reason.

 

There's a history of suppression throughout the west. Allowing fires to burn in wilderness areas is a fairly new policy.

"Fire Season" by Phillip Connors has some great info in it.

 

There's usually enough rain mixed in during the summer months to prevent this kind of thing from happening.