California Fire's Smoke Reaches Colorado, Makes Mountain Invisible From Denver

The Denver Post:

The smoke over Colorado -- which has made the mountains west of Denver invisible from downtown Denver -- has come directly from the massive 85,000-acre wildfire in Southern California, according to the National Weather Service.

Although Denverites could barely see the gray outlines of the foothills immediately west of Golden and Lakewood this afternoon, the higher mountains had disappeared in a dirty white haze.

Read the whole story: The Denver Post

Comments

[tssent]

Part 1

I have the best dreams in the world except
that they're not always so logical after I wake up
and think about them. Still, a lot of them are fun
remembering and some of them are even worth retelling.
Here's a pretty good one from the other night.

It was like a movie, appropriately so since the
setting was not only L.A. but was an action thriller
about finally putting an end to those killer California
fires that seem to be getting only worse. It went
like this...

A huge grid of something resembling irrigation pipe
had been laid out all around L.A., up the hills, down
the valleys and into the forests. Mounted atop
the pipe at "x" intervals were massive (and I do mean
massive) "sprinkler" heads. Water to feed the system
was a no-brainer because L.A. has no less than the
entire Pacific Ocean from which to draw water for
the system. This would later solve a second problem
quite by accident, namely a way to use up all that
extra water from our rising oceans. It was the
perfect dream with a storybook ending.

[tssent]

Part 2

Then it happened. A fire erupted, the biggest
ever in L.A.'s history. Authorities swung into action,
computer-activating a single square of water, the
square surrounding the fire.

Meanwhile, in fantastic Hollywood fashion,
firefighters were parachuted and helicoptered in
along the entire periphery of the square with their
supplies, including fire hoses they attached to the
pipe. They put out the fire on three sides with ease,
but couldn't handle the fourth, so they simply turned
off the valves feeding their hoses and enabled the
sprinkler valves instead. The last of the fire was
soon extinguished. It was amazing.

Now, before the fire there had been this great
arguement about how much the system was
going to cost an already bankrupt California,
but then the governor talked the insurance
companies into springing for the system by
cleverly pointing out that in the long run they'd
pay the equivalent, if not more, in claims, so
why not pay less now and be heroes on top
of everything?

[tssent]

Part 3

And he added, they could always lobby
the federal and state governments they already
owned and pass a bill that would fund a small army
of "specialists" to walk the line and perform ongoing
maintenance. It worked! The insurance companies
bought the logic and turned their investment into
an enormously lucrative enterprise, paid for by
the simpleton bastards who should have shouldered
the investment in the first place, our stupid
American taxpayers.

As additional "insurance" the governor noted, the
the Aetnas and AIGs and Prudentials of this country
were just "too large to fail". Even if the whole idea
were to fall on its face they could just pass another
bill, this one to bail themselves out.

The dream ended as it should, in a scene at
Universal Studios with filmmakers and insurance
companies crowded around at a large conference
table with their cigars and brandy negotiating a
deal for the movie rights -- starring Arnold.

[BlackTom]

Unfortunately, ocean water/salt water will prevent new plant growth from establishing itself on the burnt out hills, drastically increasing mudslide and dust storm dangers.

Salting the fields is a big no-no. But I could see Arnold running with the idea, and then dealing with the extremely negative consequences (but only in a movie)

I live in Utah, and was in our west desert this weekend, which was completely shrouded in the smoke of CA and UT wildfires. Great sunsets, but the daytime haze was unsettling.

Sunrise this morning was a trip.

[jan4insight]

Just goes to show, we're all connected - in our tragedies as well as our triumphs.

[TazoWolf]

I can attest to this. The sun was blood red during my commute this morning, and the mountains just a haze.

[UrbanRube]

That is nuts, TazoWolf. We're 4 1/2 miles south of the fire and have a brother and his family in Denver. It's bizarre to think he can see the smoke from our fire.