Whitewater and Baldy fires burning in Gila (Albuquerque, Los Alamos: pine, area)

[Gungalagungala]

Is there a fire somewhere today? The air is hazy.

[Dancingearth]

Originally Posted by Gungalagungala

Is there a fire somewhere today? The air is hazy.

Not according to the NM Fire site NM Fire Info | New Mexico Fire Information Unless the smoke from the Gila is getting up here.

It's windy - I think it's dirt.

I'm heading to Cibola County and according to the site they're starting a prescribed burn today. Hopefully that changes with this wind!

[Poncho_NM]

Whitewater and Baldy fires burning in Gila - YouTube

[Little rook]

Smoke from the fires will travel up the Rio GrandeValley, hitting Socorro Thursday and Albuquerque on Friday. Could be a repeat of last year. Folks in the Gila are predicting that the combined fires will be "one for the record books," and the winds sure aren't helping.

[Westerntraveler]

we got smoke here today in the Permian Basin region of Texas from the fires.

[joqua]

05/24/2012
Ruidoso was blanketed by a heavy pall of smoke all day yesterday. By sundown there was a solid overcast of sickly yellow color. Add to that high winds all day long and overnight last night with dust off the desert. A wind shift will hopefully drive the smoke more NW today, but it's still very smoky (or dusty) around the horizon.

One of the dangers here in the forest on days like this is the inability of fire watch spotters to differentiate local smoke from the heavy haze in the air.

[RanchoNan]

From Timberon: We could see the smoke north of us (Probably the same smoke that Ruidoso was sitting in), and we got the yellow sky and a red crescent moon. The winds last night kept me up worrying about it, but this morning there are blue skies.
Stay alert everyone - more winds on the way!

[uggabugga]

i'm surprised there aren't more posts about this. it's now the largest wildfire in state history.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...ire/55306326/1

[RanchoNan]

Me too ugga, I'm watching the news for wind changes but am surprised at the minimal coverage. As for C-D, it's possible we just don't have a lot of members from that area.

Last year, we had the Wallow fires that burned 538+ thousand acres across AZ and NM, and then the Las Conchas fires (up at the Los Alamos Nat'l Labs) 156+ thousand acres, and THEY were supposed to be the largest fires in NM history. This one's got Las Conchas beat already and it's still raging.
Scary.

[uggabugga]

yeah it is scary, and it's not even close to being contained. you are right that it seems to be one megafire after another.

i haven't been to the gila in years but i wonder how badly that area was affected by pine bark beetles? that could have been a contributing factor.