In theory, the sun shone brightly yesterday. That’s what my weather site insisted anyway: 73 and sunny. The sun, itself, however, was noticeably absent, hidden behind a vast gray sky of what was probably solid smoke. If smoke can be solid.
It’s going to be very difficult, then, to mark the turn of the weather we’re all awaiting today. Without the smoke, this would be one of those genuine Colorado days where you can experience four seasons in a day.
Here is the hourly forecast for the day: sunny right now (it’s not), partly cloudy in an hour, showers with wind at 11 turning to rain with wind right as I’ll want to go to lunch, turning to rainy snow by evening, solidifying (if snow can be solid) to snow at 7, followed by snow showers until this time tomorrow. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
In the meantime, two million acres of California are on fire with little containment on the horizon, and we are sharing this California experience, which is rendering our sky an unreliable indicator of the weather.
In our own state, most of the I-70 corridor is still on fire, as it has been, and we’re busy setting records of our own. The fire near Grand Junction I believe has now become the largest in the state, although it is 80 percent contained; the fire near Fort Collins, 0 percent contained, is chasing after this record, already the fourth largest in state history, which is where the Junction fire was mere weeks ago.
No one seems to have predicted how snow, projected to drop up to a foot in several locations around the state, might impact the fires. California is not so lucky: this cold weather is coming down from Canada, so California remains very hot and now windy. If only they had raked their forest floors!
Modern America has given rise to some really stupid practices. The “promposal,” for instance. And over-the-top “gender reveal” stunts. It turns out, one of the fires in tinder-dry California was sparked by excited parents-to-be with more enthusiasm than common sense when their pyrotechnic display to reveal their impending baby’s gender went awry.
Handing out cigars as baby announcements went by the wayside a long time ago, and good thing, in a drought-filled, overheated, windy fire season, but who would think fireworks instead would be a great idea? For pity’s sake, parents-to-be, just send postcards. Or post your ultrasound pictures to social media.
So California, and Oregon, and Washington, and Montana, and Colorado are all on fire (probably other states as well), while the “I” states (Indiana, Iowa, Illinois) are dealing with torrential rain. And now those Canadians are sending their snow.
Good thing we don’t believe in climate change.
Do you suppose not believing in climate change is like not believing in the existence of a virus? If we just close our eyes all the scientists will go away and everything will be fine?
All right, I have squandered all my blogging time, instead going outside to take things down that might go “boom” in the wind that was promised to arrive yesterday but only just got here (blowing so hard from the east, which it usually doesn’t, that it was pushing the garage door into the house open — and don’t tell me all the crap in the garage is mine as I waded through years of baking supplies to try to close the offending window) and belatedly thinking to drain hoses that have already been disconnected from the house.
I think car and house windows are closed; Lynn’s new plants have now each been given their own little drink of water and are taking in the impending storm from the safety of the guest room (they are guests, for now, after all); tomatoes, strawberry and flowers are all tucked safely behind glass.
My bicycle race has been watched, and some of the news (I see the “president,” climate change and virus denier in chief, is now lambasting Biden/Harris for not believing in the science of vaccine, which is an entirely different strain of science and one to be listened to, no matter how rash), but the places I was going with today’s post have all been lost in the flurry of activity.
On top of that, my eyes were already watering from the smoke, and now there’s wind (lots of it, although not the 90 mph-plus winds they got in Utah yesterday) and a change in barometric pressure, which my sinuses always love, so I can barely see, which must mean it is time to move on with my very blustery day.
Have a summer/fall/winter sort of day wherever you are. That’s what I’m going to do here.
Garbanzo Beans for Breakfast 