The Global Warming thread.

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Vrede too
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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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Ulysses wrote:
Tue Oct 26, 2021 6:26 am
Aren't you just the precocious one?
You're up at 3:26 am just to post that childish whine? Pitiful.
neoplacebo wrote:
Tue Oct 26, 2021 6:50 am
Better than being the puerile one. Buy the ticket; take the ride.
:thumbup:
neoplacebo wrote:
Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:27 am
In the intervening two weeks since entertaining the idea of sleeping as a bat, I have figured out how to do it. What I use is velcro knee and wrist pads and 6" square mating velcro pads on the wall and ceiling. Also velcro foot pads that don't come into play until I'm ready to sleep. This way I am able to get up there without help. Slept three days in a row as a bat and am now two inches taller. Never felt better.
Genius . . . as always.

You will also have some protection in the case of moderate flooding, such as:
'Take this seriously': New York, New Jersey declare emergencies as California 'bomb cyclone' storms move east

... In California, power lines tumbled and more than 100,000 homes and businesses remained in the dark Monday.

Another 50,000 power customers were affected across Washington state, where two people were killed when a tree fell on a vehicle near Seattle....

The front line of the storms that began late last week in California already have marched through much of the nation's midsection. A suspected tornado damaged buildings and knocked out power in communities along the border between Illinois and Missouri. The severe weather also was blamed for damage across multiple states.

The East Coast was bracing for the storms. AccuWeather meteorologist Joseph Bauer warned that heavy rains and winds could choke New York City's morning commute Tuesday; 3 to 5 inches of rain is possible over the next couple of days. And the latest storms slamming California could bring more foul weather to the East by week's end.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for parts of northeast New Jersey and southeast New York due to thunderstorms on Monday night. 1 to two inches of rain could fall within an hour, according to the service....

California was seeing incomprehensible rainfall totals. The wettest wonder could be in Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, 20 miles north of San Francisco, where the National Weather Service measured more than 16 inches of rain over a 48-hour period. St. Helena, a city of 6,100 in wine country, saw more than 10 inches.

"Looks like 4.02 inches of rain for the calendar day in downtown SF," the Bay Area weather service tweeted. "By far the wettest Oct day ever ... 4th Wettest day EVER in SF with records back to Gold Rush."

... Heavy snow pounded high elevations of the Sierra Nevada. Several areas, including the Santa Cruz Mountains and parts of western Santa Barbara County, issued evacuation orders because of their proximity to wildfire burn scars....

Flooding downpours will reach from southern Maine to eastern New York and cities such as Philadelphia, Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, which are expected to see up to 3 to 4 inches of rain. Totals reaching 8 inches were expected in some areas as the storm intensifies off the coast, AccuWeather forecast.

Winds are expected to gust from 40 to 60 mph Tuesday and Wednesday from the Jersey Shore to the southern shore of Nova Scotia. Cities such as Provincetown, Plymouth and Boston in Massachusetts could experience wind gusts as high as 80 mph Tuesday night, AccuWeather said.

By Thursday, the nor'easter will move out to sea – but another storm built on remnants from the "bomb cyclone" that walloped California on Sunday was expected to approach from the west, dousing East Coast trick-or-treaters over the weekend.
Yet another fucked up California export.
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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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So on TV, they show wildfires burning, tall flames, yada, but they aren't able to portray the scope of destruction. We're in Redding, about 10ish miles south of where the Fawn fire was. As wildfires go, the Fawn fire was not all that big, affecting 8,500 acres, but it burned almost 200 structures and caused 4,000 evacuations. So driving south on the 5, we could see the effect. Blackened hillsides, huge burn scars that will likely slide with heavy rain, hillside houses burned down, sometimes with burned cars still beside them.

And then, there's the formerly magnificent Lake Shasta, now so low the banks look like cliffs, with water probably at least 40 feet below where it used to be. When we were here three years ago, it was a little low, but not drastically awful.

Too late to "stop climate change." Adaptation is the only alternative.

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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O Really wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 11:39 am
So on TV, they show wildfires burning, tall flames, yada, but they aren't able to portray the scope of destruction. We're in Redding, about 10ish miles south of where the Fawn fire was. As wildfires go, the Fawn fire was not all that big, affecting 8,500 acres, but it burned almost 200 structures and caused 4,000 evacuations. So driving south on the 5, we could see the effect. Blackened hillsides, huge burn scars that will likely slide with heavy rain, hillside houses burned down, sometimes with burned cars still beside them.

And then, there's the formerly magnificent Lake Shasta, now so low the banks look like cliffs, with water probably at least 40 feet below where it used to be. When we were here three years ago, it was a little low, but not drastically awful.

Too late to "stop climate change." Adaptation is the only alternative.
I don't recall ever getting to Lake Shasta. Did backpack once through the Trinity Alps, which is nearby. Sort of. I guess I need to add Lake Shasta to my bucket list. Seen Tahoe many times, as well as Mono. And plenty of smaller lakes here and there.

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Re: The Global So What It Gets Warmer It Gets Colder thread

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Leadership

Hey steve, you're a whore.

Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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I'm going to write that down.

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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rightsfox72 wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 5:05 pm
I can't say for certain that global warming is 100% real but I can that this summer was the hottest I've experienced in my entire life... That seems to be the trend year after year.
Global warming IS 100% real and is undeniable, regardless of anyone's personal and local experience. Some fools still doubt whether it's human caused, but that's 100% real, too.


A couple used surrogates to have 21 babies in less than 2 years. Experts say that having such a big family is unusual but could work.

:obscene-birdiered: It does not "work" for the planet.
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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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We went past Lake Mendocino on our way up to the redwoods hike. Since we hadn't been there before, we really didn't even recognize what we were driving past, or even that it was a big lake until we saw the sign.

(Article copied here so you can avoid the SF Chronicle paywall)

REDWOOD VALLEY, Mendocino County — Lake Mendocino, once a plentiful reservoir nourishing the vines and villas of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, today is little more than a large pond, cowering beneath the coastal hills.

The exposed and cracked mud on the reservoir’s floor, as much as the wildfire that burned the grassy lake bed last summer, is the very portrait of drought. Few places in California have been hit as hard by the two-year dry spell as this sprawling stretch of Wine Country.

Tens of thousands of people who rely on the reservoir, between Healdsburg and the Ukiah Valley, in the upper Russian River watershed, have endured months of painful water restrictions. Households have been forced to cut back as much as 50%, while grape growers have sometimes gotten no water at all. The hardship may soon get worse.

State officials warn that Lake Mendocino could be the first major reservoir in modern times to go dry. While rain over the past few weeks has lifted the lake above its October low, the reservoir, a few miles northeast of Ukiah, remains at less than 20% capacity. Officials worry that the looming wet winter season won’t bring enough inflow to meet next year’s water demands.

“This is a real concern, and one that we need to start looking at,” said Erik Ekdahl, a deputy director at the State Water Resources Control Board. “We really can’t have a scenario where a whole gigantic population runs out of water.”


Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Lake Mendocino in April to declare California’s first drought emergency. The water situation, the product not only of little rain but also of warm, dehydrating temperatures in the face of climate change, has just deteriorated since.

The region’s water managers recently learned that a nearby Pacific Gas and Electric hydroelectric plant that supplies about 30% of the reservoir’s water is offline for at least 18 months because of a faulty electric transformer. The out-of-service Potter Valley Project, which gets water from a neighboring watershed, will send only minimal flows to the lake in the meantime.

Should the reservoir dry up — once unthinkable — many of the basin’s cities and towns served by the lake or the upper Russian River, where the reservoir collects and releases its flows, have no significant backup.

“It’s not if we’ll be doing conservation measures next summer, it’s to what extent,” said Terry Crowley, utilities director for Healdsburg, which is already mandating that residents and businesses cut their water use 40% compared with a year ago.


Up a gravel driveway lined with Zinfandel vines in the community of Redwood Valley, the pinch of the water shortage is as tight as it gets.

Kevin Klotter, who retired from the Bay Area to the rural town north of Lake Mendocino, had been using rainwater collected on the roof of his workshop to shower in his yard — until it got too cold outside.

“I built a little surround for it, just rigged it up with excess lumber,” he explained, as he stood in his front lawn. “The water wasn’t heated, but in the middle of the summer, it was warm enough.”

Kevin and his wife, Bree, are among about 5,500 people in Redwood Valley who are limited to using 55 gallons of municipal water a day, among the strictest restrictions in Northern California. It’s about enough for two long indoor showers, without laundry, dishwashing or yard watering.

“It hasn’t been too difficult for us,” Bree Klotter said. “We got married in 1977, which is the year of a drought, and that informed our life together.”

The local water district enacted the caps after it lost its water supply from Lake Mendocino because there wasn’t enough to go around. The community, a mix of modest homes, horse ranches, cannabis grows and vineyards, is buying whatever water it can from the neighboring district. That district, like Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Hopland and so many others in the basin, is also getting less water from the lake and the river downstream, and having to ration as a result.

“I don’t think we’re going to have any water at all next year,” said Bree, who sits on the Redwood Valley County Water District board. “It’s scary.”

To prepare for an outage, Bree and Kevin are weighing whether to run a water line to their home from their irrigation well, which now serves their small plot of grapes.


Lake Mendocino, which can hold 122,400 acre-feet of water, had about 19,500 acre-feet of water in it this week. An acre-foot is enough for about two California households annually.

With the region needing at least 25,000 to 40,000 acre-feet of water to get through the dry summer and fall, another winter with little rain could leave reservoir storage short of what’s needed. This year, the lake emerged from winter with less than 10,000 acre-feet of new storage.

“You run the math out and see the concern,” said Ekdahl of the State Water Board. “The prospect of what a dry winter means — I don’t think people have wrapped their heads around that.”

Over the past two years, the watershed has received less than half its average annual rainfall, 14.8 inches and 13.5 inches in Ukiah between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30, respectively. The past summer also was one of the hottest.

Officials with the Sonoma County Water Agency, which manages the reservoir in concert with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, say the likelihood of another similarly dry year is low, based on what’s happened historically.

The problem, though, isn’t just the weather. PG&E’s disabled Potter Valley Project means less water coming into Lake Mendocino regardless of how much falls from the sky. Roughly 9,000 acre-feet is expected from the project this winter, about half of what’s typically sent, according to PG&E.

The hydroelectric facility normally operates by drawing water from the Eel River watershed to the north, to drive the turbines, and dispensing it in the east fork of the Russian River, where it flows to the lake. Until the powerhouse is fixed, which could be two years, PG&E doesn’t need the water, which leaves the company obliged to move only minimum amounts to the Russian River for fish and wildlife.

“This is going to make us incredibly dependent on seeing five or six more big (storm) events like we saw (last month),” said Don Seymour, principal engineer for Sonoma Water, referring to the 7 inches of rain that fell in Ukiah over a few days in October. “It puts a lot more pressure on Mother Nature.”

Sonoma Water and others vested in Lake Mendocino have requested that PG&E increase its water transfers. PG&E, though, may face legal and logistical constraints to doing so. It also could face opposition from some who want to keep more water in the Eel River.

“We are evaluating whether we have the ability to make discretionary diversions for non-generational purposes,” PG&E spokesperson Paul Moreno told The Chronicle in an email.

The water levels at the lake and in the river downstream are also affected by increased groundwater pumping. With the river and reservoir providing less water, people have been more reliant on wells, sometimes pumping water so close to the surface that they’re undercutting the creeks that feed the basin and the Russian River itself. Reservoir managers recognize the loss but don’t have an exact accounting of it.

Also, officials say current storage in the lake may be overstated. Since the reservoir’s construction in 1958, it has been slowly accumulating sediment on its floor. The volume of water that the reservoir holds today could be thousands of acre-feet less than what the gauges say it is.


Not far off Highway 101 amid the vineyard-covered hills, Redwood Valley Cellars, with its grand tasting room, custom crush facility and countless organic vines, has already been cut off entirely from the Redwood Valley County Water District’s diminished supply.

Since April, about 200 growers in Redwood Valley have been without district water. Hundreds of others in the basin who draw water directly from a waterway have been ordered by state regulators to stop pumping, fallout of the governor’s emergency drought declaration.

Martha Barra, whose family owns Redwood Valley Cellars and the labels Barra of Mendocino and Girasole Vineyards, has turned to pond water as well as some trucked-in supplies to irrigate. But between what little runoff has filled her ponds and the dry weather, she produced only about half the typical yield of her nine varietals this year.

Nearby grape growers have reported similar losses, generally between 20% and 60%, according to the Mendocino County Farm Bureau. Crop value in the watershed, which includes such prized wine spots as Alexander Valley and part of Dry Creek Valley, is estimated to be as much as a few hundred million dollars.

“The water just hasn’t gotten to the deep roots. It’s just not there to get to the vines the vigor they need,” Barra said. “This is the worst we’ve ever seen it.”

To pay the bills, Barra hopes to collect crop insurance for the first time since her family took over Redwood Valley Cellars more than two decades ago.



The region’s water agencies, local communities and state officials have been meeting to figure out how to get by with little — or perhaps no — water in Lake Mendocino next year.

Foremost, they expect to put more restrictions in place, and restrictions starting earlier in the year, to reduce demand and preserve whatever water winter brings.

This year, the State Water Board began curbing water use in August, with the orders for growers, homeowners and even water agencies to stop directly drawing from waterways in the upper Russian River basin. Agencies providing for municipal use could still take a very small amount.

“It’s been a big crunch, but we’re lucky our community has really come together and supported what we’re doing,” said Jared Walker, who manages the Redwood Valley County Water District and a handful of other small public water agencies in the Ukiah area that have passed their restrictions along to residents. “I don’t anticipate myself lifting the 50% conservation notices for my customers at this point.”

Image

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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O Really wrote:
Sat Nov 13, 2021 12:43 pm
We went past Lake Mendocino on our way up to the redwoods hike. Since we hadn't been there before, we really didn't even recognize what we were driving past, or even that it was a big lake until we saw the sign....
Thirsty CA climate refugees soon?
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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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Looks like a mosquito farm. No doubt a Republican can fix it with less regulation, a tax cut, and a mandate to ban all mandates.

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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I heard a term not long ago that we've decided applies to us: "last chance touring."
It's not so much a matter of age, but that so many places are changing so quickly that in a few years (or now) they aren't anything like the way we envisioned them. National parks aren't generally crumbling into the earth, but are getting so crowded that visiting is an entirely different experience from what one would expect, or from what one had on their last visit. Other places are changing past recognition as lakes dry up, fires burn thousands of square miles and floods and flooding wipe out huge areas.

Go everywhere you can when you can - you're not going to get many more chances.

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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viewtopic.php?p=141386#p141386
GoCubsGo wrote:
Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:46 pm
Vrede too wrote:
Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:42 pm
Aren't water temperatures high out west? I think they're having to sell sushi as cooked fish. :wave:
Oh yeah, the salmon are poaching themselves, the big problem is all the dill has wilted.
Poached salmon is bad for you. ;)
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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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O Really wrote:
Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:47 pm
I heard a term not long ago that we've decided applies to us: "last chance touring."
It's not so much a matter of age, but that so many places are changing so quickly that in a few years (or now) they aren't anything like the way we envisioned them. National parks aren't generally crumbling into the earth, but are getting so crowded that visiting is an entirely different experience from what one would expect, or from what one had on their last visit. Other places are changing past recognition as lakes dry up, fires burn thousands of square miles and floods and flooding wipe out huge areas.

Go everywhere you can when you can - you're not going to get many more chances.
In your humble opinion, is there a time of year where it's better to go visit one of our great national parks?

I would imagine it would be while school is in session.

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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Ulysses wrote:
Sun Nov 21, 2021 2:41 pm
In your humble opinion, is there a time of year where it's better to go visit one of our great national parks?

I would imagine it would be while school is in session.
You haven't figured it out at your age and with your self-professed outdoors experience? Weird.

Or, are you just following my posts like you're an abused puppy again?
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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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Ulysses wrote:
Sun Nov 21, 2021 2:41 pm
O Really wrote:
Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:47 pm
I heard a term not long ago that we've decided applies to us: "last chance touring."
It's not so much a matter of age, but that so many places are changing so quickly that in a few years (or now) they aren't anything like the way we envisioned them. National parks aren't generally crumbling into the earth, but are getting so crowded that visiting is an entirely different experience from what one would expect, or from what one had on their last visit. Other places are changing past recognition as lakes dry up, fires burn thousands of square miles and floods and flooding wipe out huge areas.

Go everywhere you can when you can - you're not going to get many more chances.
In your humble opinion, is there a time of year where it's better to go visit one of our great national parks?

I would imagine it would be while school is in session.
My opinion is never humble. In general, yes - go in "shoulder season", early or late but going mid-summer anymore is crazy. But it depends on the park. Bad weather can spoil a trip, or you may find a lot of the park closed for the season. Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are good in September but Yellowstone can get snow in October. But for parks without weather issues, September/October and April/May are great.

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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O Really wrote:
Sun Nov 21, 2021 8:25 pm
My opinion is never humble. In general, yes - go in "shoulder season", early or late but going mid-summer anymore is crazy. But it depends on the park. Bad weather can spoil a trip, or you may find a lot of the park closed for the season. Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are good in September but Yellowstone can get snow in October. But for parks without weather issues, September/October and April/May are great.
Unless it's too snowy on the rim the Grand Canyon is lovely in Winter. Cold on top = temperate down low. It was never my thing, but Yellowstone is a year round park - snow coaches, cross country skiing, snowmobiles.

Everglades is relatively bugless and comfortable in Nov, probably midwinter too.
The desert/canyon parks of UT/NV/AZ/NM can be great in March or earlier, if one pays attention to the weather reports for your altitude.

I avoid all parks between Memorial and Labor Days. There are wilderness areas or even BLM/USFS, instead.
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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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Vrede too wrote:
Sun Nov 21, 2021 8:58 pm


I avoid all parks between Memorial and Labor Days. There are wilderness areas or even BLM/USFS, instead.
Yeah, used to be you could go to the lesser name parks in the summer and still keep out of crowds. Like instead of Arches, you could go to Canyonlands and get pretty much the same experience with way fewer people around. Now even the nearby Dead Horse Point state park is packed. The Montgomery Woods preserve where we last hiked the Redwoods is by no means the biggest name redwood park, nor by any means easy to get to. Think getting out to Cataloochee but with less dirt road. Even on a not-very-inviting weather day, the parking lots were mostly full - in November.

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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O Really wrote:
Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:47 pm
I heard a term not long ago that we've decided applies to us: "last chance touring."
It's not so much a matter of age, but that so many places are changing so quickly that in a few years (or now) they aren't anything like the way we envisioned them. National parks aren't generally crumbling into the earth, but are getting so crowded that visiting is an entirely different experience from what one would expect, or from what one had on their last visit. Other places are changing past recognition as lakes dry up, fires burn thousands of square miles and floods and flooding wipe out huge areas.

Go everywhere you can when you can - you're not going to get many more chances.
Huge ecosystems are being altered forever.

Newspaper's map change puts spotlight on Great Salt Lake's 'death spiral'

Image

Image

:shock: :cry:
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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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That's dizzying. 🤮
Eamus Catuli~AC 000000 000101 010202 020303 010304 020405....Ahhhh, forget it, it's gonna be a while.

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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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rightsfox72 wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 5:05 pm
I can't say for certain that global warming is 100% real but I can that this summer was the hottest I've experienced in my entire life... That seems to be the trend year after year.
Wildfire destroys 24 houses in central Montana town

:wtf: This never happens in Dec!
A late-season wildfire that came amid unseasonably warm weather and was pushed by strong winds ripped through a tiny central Montana farming town overnight, burning 24 homes and four grain elevators that had stood for more than a century.

Fire crews were putting out hot spots Thursday and officials were assessing the damage done by the fire, which burned 20 square miles (50 square kilometers) of prairie and agricultural land before burning into the town of Denton on Wednesday afternoon. The town's nearly 300 residents evacuated. There were no reports of injuries....

The power outage due to the downed power lines that sparked the fire shut off water pumps, leaving the town without water, officials said....

Montana Highway 81 west of Denton was closed because a bridge was destroyed by the fire. A railroad bridge in the same area was also destroyed.

Highway 81 is one of only two ways in and out of Denton on a paved road, Linker said.

Other fires have been burning in Montana in recent days as gusty winds fanned the flames amid drought and unseasonably warm temperatures.

Areas of Montana east of the Continental Divide have had down-sloping west winds for about a week, the National Weather Service said.

With such winds, the air warms and wind speeds increase as the air moves down the slope of the Rocky Mountains, said Cody Moldan, a meteorologist in Great Falls.

Several areas of the state saw record wind gusts on Wednesday and the town of Jordan in central Montana reached a high temperature of 78 degrees Fahrenheit (26 Celsius).

Central Montana is among several areas of Montana that are experiencing exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

From Sept. 1 through Nov. 30, Lewistown recorded 1.09 inches (2.8 centimeters) of precipitation, which is 3.08 inches (7.8 centimeters) below normal for those three months, the weather service said. Meanwhile, the average temperature in November was 7 F (4 C) above normal....

Other fires that burned in Montana on Wednesday included one south of the city of Great Falls that burned 11 homes and seven garages along with sheds and vehicles. About 65 people evacuated, Cascade County officials said.

There were two grass fires near Browning, where there were also power outages because the wind was knocking trees into power lines, officials said.
:shock: Montana grows tons of grain . . . if it's wet enough.

Central Montanans tend to elect RepuQs. Smart.
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Re: The Global Warming thread.

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