Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Drought for the west

Helena has only received this much rain in a single day in August 8 times since 1938. Another inch or so is predicted. Western Montana is sitting a lot prettier than it was a week ago. That said, eastern Montana largely missed out, and eastern MT is hurting. A lot can change, but I think this will dampen the remainder of fire season in a third of the state.


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I've been checking in on the satellite feed at least once a day and have been really surprised to see that northern CA gets pretty strong winds from all directions pretty regularly. Around the Dixie fire it was a hard west wind two days ago not a moderate northern wind. I was trying to think about how that might affect how successful the suppression efforts are. I've noticed for the most part all our fires here in WA have remained just fractions of the size and growth that the CA fires see. I could see where those changes CA winds push the fire back on itself and help the cause, but also could play havoc on trying to mobilize resources to various sides of an active fire.

I know it's be posted before but: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector_band.php?sat=G17&sector=pnw&band=GEOCOLOR&length=24
 
29% of the precipitation we've received since January 1 has come in the last 22 hours.
I should qualify that statement and point out that we still haven't received 4" of precip since January 1 and normal is 5.26".
 
I’m sitting here listening to the rain for the 3rd night in a row. Things are looking better at least for the short term in SW MT.
 
The Dixie fire here in N. CA. Is a monster. A few nights ago part of it came over the Diamond Mtns. just east of Janesville. It came over at the worst time as the thermals were strong and it pushed an arm of it down to the valley floor in a matter of minutes. I was watching it from my house and couldn’t believe how fast it moved. Lots of homes gone. The past two days they threw everything but the kitchen sink at a spot going back up a Canyon on the West side of this arm. I was amazed that all the retardant and water dumped on it didn’t stop it for two days. It didn’t grow in size or move very fast, but just kept at it. Looks like it’s still burning at that spot this morning.
 

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