13 August 2013 - Eating Smoke and Falling Stars

We have moved into fire season. For the past two weeks we have been under high alerts for fire. In the last couple days, several fires have been started by lightning.  Not that we are getting any rain, mind you, just those isolated pop-up storms that boil up in the afternoons. 

We have several large fires to the west and the north of Salt Lake. The one affecting us the most is a big fire just the other side of the Oquirrh Mountains in a desolate area called Skull Valley. Today the air has a very yellow look to it, kind of greasy yellow. My eyes have been itching all day. Yesterday evening the wind brought the smoke and the smell. My throat was raw from breathing the smoke. And the day before that, when the fire first started you could see the plum of smoke rising behind the Oquirrhs. 

Here you can see where the smoke is rising on the far left side and  the wind is carrying it north. 

The sky was yellow. To the naked eye, the sun was blood red, but the camera didn't capture that--made it look more red around the sun. 

It did make for some incredible color when the sun set. This picture was taken about an hour before sunset. 









Sunset is at 8:30. Too soon!

Sure makes me stop and think good thoughts about all the firefighters and hope they are able to stay safe while they are protecting the rest of us. 

Last night was the big night for the Perseid Meteor Showers. I got up about 2 am, took a blanket and pillow and lay on the lawn for a while. In 15 minutes I counted 23 shooting stars ranging from the fastest streaks that were almost a blur to longer fireball arcs trailing across the sky. It was wonderful. This is the first time in years that the sky has been clear enough to see them. 

Earlier in the evening we had a storm blow up, monster clouds, three minutes of rain then gone, but the clouds lingered. I was happy to see they had moved on when I got up to check on sky conditions for the meteor showers.