Fires died down in New Mexico, drought may turn into desert, 7/25/2011

The fires around most of New Mexico have died down. A feeble monsoon brought apparently just enough water to the mountains to douse the flames of the "Las Conchas" fire which consumed 160.000 acres but only 'licked' the laboratory and didn't enter the town of Los Alamos.

The"Cerro Grande" fire, which did devastate about 300 houses in Los Alamos in the year 2000 and lit up the South West corner of the laboratory (Tech Area 16), turned out in many ways the prescribed fire it was meant to be --in the sense that it prevented the 2011 Las Conchas fire from being much more destructive.

Around Santa Fe it stopped raining around the middle of January and by the end of June had only received just over 1/2 inch of rain for the year. Someone remarked that there is a point where you no longer talk about drought....instead you speak of desert and that is really where the whole SouthWest of the US is going rapidly. From Las Vegas to Phoenix, from Santa Fe to Albuquerque and El Paso, there is no longer any available water; the Sonoran desert is spreading.

a feeble intermittent monsoon....where? oh where? is Avanyu, the water guardian deity of this area....

In the beginning of July finally some rain arived in New Mexico --but plentiful it is not. Even 15 minutes of rain seems to be a blessing, but what this land really needs is a good dousing of rain. Of course after the Las Conchas fire, we may run into all kinds of problems even with a little rain: ashes, landslides, pollution they may all come down the Los Alamos arroyos rapidly, causing erosion and water filtration problems.  In the Santa Clara pueblo, people are continuously sand bagging to prevent the expected deluge to flood their village.

The mountains themselves will never be the same: the heat of the flames has even 'burned the roots' as one of the elders of the San Ildefonso pueblo recently proclaimed.
Some (fundamentalist) people in Los Alamos think that the fact that Los Alamos was mostly spared in these last fires, is a sign of God's grace and endorsement of its mission. I too bow to the grace, but I take the omnipotent message a little differently:
Cerro Grande was the first and Las Conchas is the second warning....... three strikes and you are out.

Firesnake still pretty active close to Los Alamos, 7/6/2011

I was there around 6 or so. More cars going down 'the hill' than up.

(click on photos to enlarge)

We have been lucky with the winds....They are mainly going South to North and so far that has helped skirt of Los Alamos. But that doesn't mean that all danger is passed. Here the fire is 3 or 4 miles north west of Los Alamos.

Sunset over Los Alamos....like a Bruegel Painting

                           

....going back to Los Alamos....

A three headed fire snake consumes over 100.000 acres and briefly licks the lab....

Though the fire briefly 'licked' lab grounds at TA 16, luckily the worst case scenario (nuclear releases) has so far been avoided. Nevertheless Los Alamos and its mountains will never be the same and it may well come to pass that the whole area will experience desertification, and giant soil erosion --for when the rains finally come, there will be little to hold the soil from washing away. If nothing else the Concha fire is an environmental catastrophe of a large order and the fires are only its second chapter -- drought its first.

red is most recent activity: morphing up...a three headed fire-snake with a long tail..

Right now it looks as if the fire has split up  like a three headed snake with some free launching satellites and a long tail. They seems to be creating their own wind pattern -- possibly because of the high heat. According to the records Bandelier and surrounding areas only received half an inch of rain since January 2011. Each of the fire  cores is a large fire by itself, and  positioned to consume large amounts of fuel.  Santa Clara is threatened and a lot of sacred lands may be destroyed by the fires. Devastation will be abound.

A message to my Los Alamos (scientist) friends: Why go back to Los Alamos ? Wind, dust, smoldering after fires, and a laboratory that is dedicated to unleash fire storms on others.........? What is the fun living in the midst of so much irony....... ?