Category: colorado

I was watching the briefing at a friend’s house Tuesday afternoon when the immediate evacuation of the northwest quadrant was announced.  I stepped out a little while later and took this photo.  The day turned to night under the black plume.

My friend and I finished evacuating our horses to her place late last night. I moved some photos and other stuff at the same time.  My mother and her cat is with us now.  Her place is far too close to the toxic smoke: just across the freeway.  We are preparing to be evacuated, but as of right now, we are not under any pre-evacuation, voluntary evacuation, or mandatory evacuation orders. We are in the next neighborhood north of the Air Force Academy, which evacuated most of their personnel yesterday evening.

 

The shot I took on Saturday was misnamed:  it was actually the Waldo Canyon Fire and it took the various agencies concerned a few hours to get the names of this fire sorted out.   Looking south this morning, when it was pleasant with no smell of smoke, I took this next photo.  I believe the reddish cast to the hills is the alpenglow.

Looking south this evening when it was  hot but still no strong smell of smoke, I took this photo:

(I’ve zoomed in less with this one, but it is the identical direction of the one above.) The plume curls up much higher and curves away to the northeast of our house. The fire is now 5% contained, and is the number one fire fighting priority in the country.  We could just have soon done without the honor. We are the next valley north of the Air Force Academy, for locals who may wonder where I took these shots.

I took this photo from the open door to my garage.  Just saw the first mention on this fire on Twitter and it looks like it just exploded.  It is an extremely rugged area and is probably in a canyon that is acting as a fireplace.  It is close to the major road into the mountains here.  They’ve already posted mandatory evacuations for one community.  I am listening via Internet radio to the authorities deciding where to establish their command post right now.

This is very bad news.

We didn’t receive any rain or hail from the severe thunderstorm that pounded stalled over Colorado Springs yesterday, but we did hear thunder and see these spectacular mammatus clouds.

In this photo one can see the frost line Monday night, as well as the burn scar from last summer.

We’ve had our feeds up for a week or so, but I haven’t had a chance to take the camera out to the deck before today. For those who do not live in Colorado, this is a Broad-tailed male, our most frequently seen species of hummingbird.