The all-purpose heavy duty Climate Chaos thread (sprinkled with hope).

Thanks Brian. It is a terrible situation. There is a thread about it on AET if you are interested. 

brianlux said:

PJ_Soul said:

brianlux said:

Sorry to ring a depressing note here, and I know the focus of AMT has mostly been political these recent years, but I sense the need to keep this most pressing environmental issue in mind. 

It's been very concerning to us here in the west to have to deal with the catastrophic wildfires we've had in many recent years in the late summer and fall.  But to be reading about the raging fires in eastern Canada and how they are affect so many of our east coast friends, and hearing about this happening in late spring (!) is alarming.  Some scientists are calling this a "new reality"- a disturbing thought. 

I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed on these forums until now (or did I miss something?)

In any case, my sincere concern and empathy for those of you dealing with the bad air.  We here in the west know about this only too well and I'm sorry to hear the problem has spread to other parts of the country.  I hope you east coast folks are taking good care.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/canadas-wildfires-new-climate-reality-experts-officials-say

I've certainly talking about this before (mainly in the context of the southwest coast of Canada of course). Before about 2015 greater Vancouver had NEVER had smoke from wildfires to the point where it affected sunlight. But since 2015 it's happened several summers, with smoke from California, Washington, Oregon, and the interior of BC all choking us out. Now it's time for the north easterners of the US to experience it at a level never before seen as well. Since humans usually don't care about stuff until they are affected directly, so maybe it's actually kind of a good thing that they northeast is getting a lungfull. Perhaps the big wigs in NYC and whatnot will be more motivated.

Good points, though I am sorry it had to take this stark reminder from Mother Nature.  I lived on Washington's Olympic Peninsula for about four years in the late 80s - early 90s and wild fire smoke was pretty much never a thing up there.  It's hugely eye-opening to see what is becoming more common up your way as well as in eastern Canada.  I guess if ever there was a wake-up call, this is it.

brianlux said:

Zod said:

brianlux said:

PJ_Soul said:

brianlux said:

Sorry to ring a depressing note here, and I know the focus of AMT has mostly been political these recent years, but I sense the need to keep this most pressing environmental issue in mind. 

It's been very concerning to us here in the west to have to deal with the catastrophic wildfires we've had in many recent years in the late summer and fall.  But to be reading about the raging fires in eastern Canada and how they are affect so many of our east coast friends, and hearing about this happening in late spring (!) is alarming.  Some scientists are calling this a "new reality"- a disturbing thought. 

I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed on these forums until now (or did I miss something?)

In any case, my sincere concern and empathy for those of you dealing with the bad air.  We here in the west know about this only too well and I'm sorry to hear the problem has spread to other parts of the country.  I hope you east coast folks are taking good care.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/canadas-wildfires-new-climate-reality-experts-officials-say

I've certainly talking about this before (mainly in the context of the southwest coast of Canada of course). Before about 2015 greater Vancouver had NEVER had smoke from wildfires to the point where it affected sunlight. But since 2015 it's happened several summers, with smoke from California, Washington, Oregon, and the interior of BC all choking us out. Now it's time for the north easterners of the US to experience it at a level never before seen as well. Since humans usually don't care about stuff until they are affected directly, so maybe it's actually kind of a good thing that they northeast is getting a lungfull. Perhaps the big wigs in NYC and whatnot will be more motivated.

Good points, though I am sorry it had to take this stark reminder from Mother Nature.  I lived on Washington's Olympic Peninsula for about four years in the late 80s - early 90s and wild fire smoke was pretty much never a thing up there.  It's hugely eye-opening to see what is becoming more common up your way as well as in eastern Canada.  I guess if ever there was a wake-up call, this is it.

Same here on Vancouver Island.  I don't ever recalled big thick forest fire smoke growing up on Vancouver Island.  I've lived here my entire life except for 5 years I moved to Edmonton after University.  Edmonton was the first time I remember seeing big thick forest fire smoke.  There was one year a bunch blew in from fires in BC.  It was gross.  Then I moved back to Vancouver Island, and how it's getting more and more common.

The upside (if there is one) is the wind mostly blows off the pacific, so even though we get it, we seem to get it less worse than many other places in North America.  The winds sort of have to stop, or come from an abnormal direction for it to blow at us.  I often wonder if that'll cause more people from BC's interior to to move to Vancouver Island to try and evade the worst of the summer smoke.

Again, I am very sorry to hear about what is happening with the wildfires up north.    But I am glad you don't get too much smoke where you are.

The situation is somewhat different in much of California. We live in the Sierra foothills about three to four hours drive inland from the coast and most of the fires here happen a little to the east of us, we get hit very hard with smoke at certain hours of the day.  What happens is that during the day, the prevailing winds come from the west and push smoke further into the high country and on over toward Nevada.  But then quite frequently, at night the winds shift to the exact opposite and bring the smoke down on us, and beyond to the Sacramento Valley and even beyond there to the coast.  And then the winds shift in the mid to late evening and the cycle starts all over again.  In Central and Northern California, there pretty much is no place to run, no place to hide from the smoke other than indoors with an air cleaner running.

It sounds like up your way that wind shift does not occur as much (except, I suspect, maybe in Washington and Oregon west of the cascades).

That sounds tough.  Yah most of the time our wind is blows west to east, or maybe southwest to north east.

Sometimes when we get our hottest weather it causes the pattern to change.  A year or two ago the wind started coming straight north which funneled smoke from California fires directly into Washington and BC.  

It's pretty crazy.   It's super dry here too.   We had one of the driest winters I can remember (we had rain, but not near the amounts we usually get), and have gone straight into a dry spring.  Last year the wet season lasted until mid July then got so warm/dry we had campfire bans by the end of July (I can't remember the last time it only took 2 weeks of amazing weather to do that). Then we had the longest Summer I recall, where it was sunny and didn't rain until November.  Summer went into serious overtime.

So many weird weather anomalies.    It also felt last last winter California got all of our usual pineapple expresses (haha I loath to call them atmospheric rivers).  Like the whole normal weather pattern shifted south.

brianlux said:

Zod said:

brianlux said:

Zod said:

brianlux said:

PJ_Soul said:

brianlux said:

Sorry to ring a depressing note here, and I know the focus of AMT has mostly been political these recent years, but I sense the need to keep this most pressing environmental issue in mind. 

It's been very concerning to us here in the west to have to deal with the catastrophic wildfires we've had in many recent years in the late summer and fall.  But to be reading about the raging fires in eastern Canada and how they are affect so many of our east coast friends, and hearing about this happening in late spring (!) is alarming.  Some scientists are calling this a "new reality"- a disturbing thought. 

I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed on these forums until now (or did I miss something?)

In any case, my sincere concern and empathy for those of you dealing with the bad air.  We here in the west know about this only too well and I'm sorry to hear the problem has spread to other parts of the country.  I hope you east coast folks are taking good care.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/canadas-wildfires-new-climate-reality-experts-officials-say

I've certainly talking about this before (mainly in the context of the southwest coast of Canada of course). Before about 2015 greater Vancouver had NEVER had smoke from wildfires to the point where it affected sunlight. But since 2015 it's happened several summers, with smoke from California, Washington, Oregon, and the interior of BC all choking us out. Now it's time for the north easterners of the US to experience it at a level never before seen as well. Since humans usually don't care about stuff until they are affected directly, so maybe it's actually kind of a good thing that they northeast is getting a lungfull. Perhaps the big wigs in NYC and whatnot will be more motivated.

Good points, though I am sorry it had to take this stark reminder from Mother Nature.  I lived on Washington's Olympic Peninsula for about four years in the late 80s - early 90s and wild fire smoke was pretty much never a thing up there.  It's hugely eye-opening to see what is becoming more common up your way as well as in eastern Canada.  I guess if ever there was a wake-up call, this is it.

Same here on Vancouver Island.  I don't ever recalled big thick forest fire smoke growing up on Vancouver Island.  I've lived here my entire life except for 5 years I moved to Edmonton after University.  Edmonton was the first time I remember seeing big thick forest fire smoke.  There was one year a bunch blew in from fires in BC.  It was gross.  Then I moved back to Vancouver Island, and how it's getting more and more common.

The upside (if there is one) is the wind mostly blows off the pacific, so even though we get it, we seem to get it less worse than many other places in North America.  The winds sort of have to stop, or come from an abnormal direction for it to blow at us.  I often wonder if that'll cause more people from BC's interior to to move to Vancouver Island to try and evade the worst of the summer smoke.

Again, I am very sorry to hear about what is happening with the wildfires up north.    But I am glad you don't get too much smoke where you are.

The situation is somewhat different in much of California. We live in the Sierra foothills about three to four hours drive inland from the coast and most of the fires here happen a little to the east of us, we get hit very hard with smoke at certain hours of the day.  What happens is that during the day, the prevailing winds come from the west and push smoke further into the high country and on over toward Nevada.  But then quite frequently, at night the winds shift to the exact opposite and bring the smoke down on us, and beyond to the Sacramento Valley and even beyond there to the coast.  And then the winds shift in the mid to late evening and the cycle starts all over again.  In Central and Northern California, there pretty much is no place to run, no place to hide from the smoke other than indoors with an air cleaner running.

It sounds like up your way that wind shift does not occur as much (except, I suspect, maybe in Washington and Oregon west of the cascades).

That sounds tough.  Yah most of the time our wind is blows west to east, or maybe southwest to north east.

Sometimes when we get our hottest weather it causes the pattern to change.  A year or two ago the wind started coming straight north which funneled smoke from California fires directly into Washington and BC.  

It's pretty crazy.   It's super dry here too.   We had one of the driest winters I can remember (we had rain, but not near the amounts we usually get), and have gone straight into a dry spring.  Last year the wet season lasted until mid July then got so warm/dry we had campfire bans by the end of July (I can't remember the last time it only took 2 weeks of amazing weather to do that). Then we had the longest Summer I recall, where it was sunny and didn't rain until November.  Summer went into serious overtime.

So many weird weather anomalies.    It also felt last last winter California got all of our usual pineapple expresses (haha I loath to call them atmospheric rivers).  Like the whole normal weather pattern shifted south.

Dry/ Northwest.  Isn't that an oxymoron, lol!?

We've had strange weather this year as well- record level snow in the Sierras, two brief heat waves in May alternating between cooler than average, followed by some uncommon light rain this month and currently in a drowsy inducing warm and quite humid few day.  It's a roller coaster everywhere these days!

Because my cousin has condos in Mammoth we hear about the snowfall up there.  These past few years they have had so much snow that they ski 9 months out of the year and this year had a record for road closures.

brianlux said:

tempo_n_groove said:

brianlux said:

Zod said:

brianlux said:

Zod said:

brianlux said:

PJ_Soul said:

brianlux said:

Sorry to ring a depressing note here, and I know the focus of AMT has mostly been political these recent years, but I sense the need to keep this most pressing environmental issue in mind. 

It's been very concerning to us here in the west to have to deal with the catastrophic wildfires we've had in many recent years in the late summer and fall.  But to be reading about the raging fires in eastern Canada and how they are affect so many of our east coast friends, and hearing about this happening in late spring (!) is alarming.  Some scientists are calling this a "new reality"- a disturbing thought. 

I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed on these forums until now (or did I miss something?)

In any case, my sincere concern and empathy for those of you dealing with the bad air.  We here in the west know about this only too well and I'm sorry to hear the problem has spread to other parts of the country.  I hope you east coast folks are taking good care.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/canadas-wildfires-new-climate-reality-experts-officials-say

I've certainly talking about this before (mainly in the context of the southwest coast of Canada of course). Before about 2015 greater Vancouver had NEVER had smoke from wildfires to the point where it affected sunlight. But since 2015 it's happened several summers, with smoke from California, Washington, Oregon, and the interior of BC all choking us out. Now it's time for the north easterners of the US to experience it at a level never before seen as well. Since humans usually don't care about stuff until they are affected directly, so maybe it's actually kind of a good thing that they northeast is getting a lungfull. Perhaps the big wigs in NYC and whatnot will be more motivated.

Good points, though I am sorry it had to take this stark reminder from Mother Nature.  I lived on Washington's Olympic Peninsula for about four years in the late 80s - early 90s and wild fire smoke was pretty much never a thing up there.  It's hugely eye-opening to see what is becoming more common up your way as well as in eastern Canada.  I guess if ever there was a wake-up call, this is it.

Same here on Vancouver Island.  I don't ever recalled big thick forest fire smoke growing up on Vancouver Island.  I've lived here my entire life except for 5 years I moved to Edmonton after University.  Edmonton was the first time I remember seeing big thick forest fire smoke.  There was one year a bunch blew in from fires in BC.  It was gross.  Then I moved back to Vancouver Island, and how it's getting more and more common.

The upside (if there is one) is the wind mostly blows off the pacific, so even though we get it, we seem to get it less worse than many other places in North America.  The winds sort of have to stop, or come from an abnormal direction for it to blow at us.  I often wonder if that'll cause more people from BC's interior to to move to Vancouver Island to try and evade the worst of the summer smoke.

Again, I am very sorry to hear about what is happening with the wildfires up north.    But I am glad you don't get too much smoke where you are.

The situation is somewhat different in much of California. We live in the Sierra foothills about three to four hours drive inland from the coast and most of the fires here happen a little to the east of us, we get hit very hard with smoke at certain hours of the day.  What happens is that during the day, the prevailing winds come from the west and push smoke further into the high country and on over toward Nevada.  But then quite frequently, at night the winds shift to the exact opposite and bring the smoke down on us, and beyond to the Sacramento Valley and even beyond there to the coast.  And then the winds shift in the mid to late evening and the cycle starts all over again.  In Central and Northern California, there pretty much is no place to run, no place to hide from the smoke other than indoors with an air cleaner running.

It sounds like up your way that wind shift does not occur as much (except, I suspect, maybe in Washington and Oregon west of the cascades).

That sounds tough.  Yah most of the time our wind is blows west to east, or maybe southwest to north east.

Sometimes when we get our hottest weather it causes the pattern to change.  A year or two ago the wind started coming straight north which funneled smoke from California fires directly into Washington and BC.  

It's pretty crazy.   It's super dry here too.   We had one of the driest winters I can remember (we had rain, but not near the amounts we usually get), and have gone straight into a dry spring.  Last year the wet season lasted until mid July then got so warm/dry we had campfire bans by the end of July (I can't remember the last time it only took 2 weeks of amazing weather to do that). Then we had the longest Summer I recall, where it was sunny and didn't rain until November.  Summer went into serious overtime.

So many weird weather anomalies.    It also felt last last winter California got all of our usual pineapple expresses (haha I loath to call them atmospheric rivers).  Like the whole normal weather pattern shifted south.

Dry/ Northwest.  Isn't that an oxymoron, lol!?

We've had strange weather this year as well- record level snow in the Sierras, two brief heat waves in May alternating between cooler than average, followed by some uncommon light rain this month and currently in a drowsy inducing warm and quite humid few day.  It's a roller coaster everywhere these days!

Because my cousin has condos in Mammoth we hear about the snowfall up there.  These past few years they have had so much snow that they ski 9 months out of the year and this year had a record for road closures.

The photos coming out of Mammoth and Tahoe both this year were crazy.  Some people where asking why more people were not trying harder to get the snow off their roofs to avoid collapsed roofs, but in many places there simply was no place to remove the snow to. 

With warmer weather upon us these last few weeks, I'm surprised I haven't heard more about flooding from all the runoff.

SO yes, there is literally no where to put the snow and there have been collapses of roofs, My cousins wan't one of them thankfully.

I fully expect bigger reservoirs to be built if this keeps happening.  You figure you can run a turbine AND supply water from all that runoff.