Posted on 02/02/2005 2:09:42 PM PST by hsmomx3
PHOENIX (AP) -- Heavy winter rains that have drenched the Southwest may mean a delayed, less severe fire season.
That's the word from the Southwest Interagency Coordination Center in New Mexico.
The concern this year, however, may focus on the lower elevations instead of the forests.
The wet weather this winter poses a greater threat of brush fires in lower elevations.
State forester Kirk Rowdabaugh says that a lot of the risk for desert brush fires will depend on how much moisture the remaining winter and spring months bring.
The longer the moisture lingers, the taller and thicker the brush will grow. And the more brush, or fine fuel, the more likely brush fires are to ignite.
Rowdabaugh says desert fires are especially dangerous because the lower elevations are so much more densely populated.
Geez, they complain when it doesn't rain, they complain when it does rain...I wonder if my wife is somehow involved...
We got pummeled up here in cowboyland as well. The Hassayampa River is flowing above ground. For those of you who aren't from the area, the river usually flows underground until after Wickenburg.
I guess the well will be happy, anyway.
Or they tell you that it didn't make a dent in our drought situation.
I do know that we always get much more rain than what the airport gets, which in my opinion, is not a good gauge for measuring precipitation or temps..
Our temps are at least 10-15 degrees cooler in the winter mornings than they are at the airport.
I understand Mojave R. has surfaced out near Barstow in Calif.
It's always something.
I guess that the media, politicians, lawyers, and bureaucrats always will need a "crisis" to keep themselves essential to our lives.
The cycles of the living earth will continue - humans, like the ant, cannot change the natural cycles that have been around for eons.
ROTFLMAO - A people wonder why I'm a bachelor.
We need about 3 years of wet winters (with snowpack ABOVE average) to get back to an equilibrium.
Will this happen? Every storm helps, but it really DOES have to be snow and it does have to be cold, cold, cold. An early thaw or a series of warm, wet storms are just wasteful because we will lose the water down to the Colorado River.
Some people are disturbed when they see water flowing through Phoenix. They call me up and ask: Why can't we capture all that water? First of all, even tho it looks like a lot of water to you and me, it really isn't THAT much. We are talking about water consumption in Arizona of 7.6 MILLION acre feet a year (imagine a football field sized pool, filled 7.6 million feet high with water)
We have (mostly) adequate storage facilities. It's hard to find new places to build reservoirs and dams.
Pray for snow.
We get free irrigation because the water has to be released.
Lot's of asphalt at airports. This absorbs heat and gives it off long after the sun sets and heats up quickly when the sun rises thereby affecting temps in and around the airport. The same is true of cities which are always 10-15 degrees warmer then suburbs.
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