This years fire season started very early.
At the moment there are 48 seperate fires burning in my climatic zone, in the NE section of the province of British Columbia.
It would seem Alberta is getting the worst of it, Ft. McMurray is currently on fire. Sounds like it's burned into the city's centre. All ~29,0000 residents have been forced to leave. Wind gusts are expected to be worse tomorrow.
If you haven't already, prepare for a nasty year. Discuss the worse case scenario, including what to do in the case of separation, with your loved ones asap.
We're on high alert and will be spending the next few days preparing, just in case.
Blair, I'm sorry to hear that. At least you used "climatic" correctly. It's common to hear the misused "climactic," or vice versa.
I'm glad there are no fires burning in your climactic zone.
Jeeesh, Bob,
You turned an exciting post thread into an anticlimactic one.
Actually, I just saw footage on CNN and it is very baaaad. In Alberta, 80,000 have been evacuated. The images of the flames are horrific. Here's hoping that everyone makes it out safely.
In watching the news here yesterday, in the morning they had sunny skies and the fires were in the area. Then the wind changed and the fire headed directly for Fort McMurray. By 2 in the afternoon a full evacuation was ordered for the over 80,000 residents of the city. About this time the fire had crossed highway 63 and the Athabasca river. Those residents on the north side of the river had to flee north towards the Oil Sands and those who were south of the river had to go south towards Edmonton. Todays news said that there have been no deaths reported in the city but there was a fiery crash south of the city killing one person.
Today the news helicopters are not able to see what has been destroyed due to the thick smoke.
Our local news station for some videos
http://globalnews.ca/edmonton/
I haven't watched network evening news in a while, but the fires made 2nd page news here in Atlanta.
Stay safe.
The fire is huge now and way out of control. Mother nature needs to intervene.
Our forecast earlier today in Iowa was for "smoke" according to AccuWeather.com Seriously. Wow, the smoke from the massive fire is really spreading around North America (and beyond). I can't even picture the size of fire that causes this to happen. I mean, I know that it is extremely massive, but wow. I still can't "picture" it in my mind.
It's very bad. As Fred said, we need some help from nature.
Some videos posted by an evacuee trying to leave Fort Mac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCc1FvZ3g0Q
Miraculously, with a lot of hard work by fire fighters, and a little help from the weather, 85% of Fort Mac is still standing. Apparently none of the critical infrastructure has been seriously damaged.
Still, they estimate 2,400 buildings (mostly homes I presume) have been lost. On Insurer figured there were around 3.5 billion in loss claims coming.
Yikes!