http://www.dailyprogress.com/newsvirgini...00549ae8fc.html

I wanted to add, there have been a lot of "typo's" in these recent news stories.

Good news, the story about the fire was back on page 3, of the paper yesterday. It said that there were 14,000 ping pong ball things dropped.

We did finally get a light sprinkle last evening, just enough to get the roads, concrete and the vehicles wet looking. Then it dried off before dark. Very light rain this morning, calling for a chance of rain today and tomorrow. We need it!

Talked to a beef farmer that lives 30-some miles up the creek, in the next county, he told me that he turned his cows out into one of the hay fields. Told me his fields are burnt. Our dry spell is widespread.

Yesterday's paper had the fire story, back in Section B, page 1. Now, they hope to have contained by the 30th. Again.

The rainfall total for yesterday was almost 0.10 of an inch. The leaves over by the neighbors fence look dry. Calling for 100% chance of rain today, maybe up to 1/2".

It's been staying warm at night, and our trees haven't leafed-out yet, in direct sun that 1/2" of rain won't go very far.

I skimmed through the paper yesterday, nothing about the Rocky Mount fire. Unless I missed it. ???

We did finally get a decent rain yesterday. A light soaking rain yesterday morning, followed by a heavier shower, and another good rain about dark. They're calling for a chance of rain over the weekend, we need more!

Not sure what weather conditions they had 50 miles from here, but if they had nearly the same conditions, the fire has pretty much ran it's course. Hard to say, but I'll put the price tag up around 5 million dollars. As of the last report, there were no serious injuries.

redsnow here are some websites to get information on the fire: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf

I found one link, it was from NOAA. There are fires burning all over the country.

"Rain Thwarts Rocky Mount Fire", on top of page 1, in yesterday's Daily News-Record. As of yesterday, the fire is 90% contained. I read someplace that they'd received an inch of rain. Locally we got somewhere around a half-inch.

This fire is pretty much out, but I'm going to give you a couple quotes from the paper.

"Northup said the cost to fight the fire had exceeded $3 million and could reach $4 million or $5 million by the time it is extinguished."

"the fire served as a wakeup call..." "In an area where there hasn't been a fire for 85 years, people can become a little bit complacent. . ."

One thing that I'll point out, there are 100's of square miles of property around here, just loaded with fuel. And when we get dry, it's there ready to explode.

Early in this discussion, where I said the Park folks said they'd let the fire run it's course: Well, they changed their minds! I've read where the fire crossed their containment lines, several times.

My opinion, it's pretty much fact, without the helicopter water drops, fairly easy access and the rain, this fire would still be going strong.

The fire in Fort McMurray, Alberta is a huge one. 90,000 people evacuated.

We have crocuses out but there is still plenty of snow in the woods. Open areas are clear. Bush roads are not passable in truck yet. You have dirt patches where the roads follow streams, only to have 2 feet of snow further up. So ATV's get stuck and it's tough on snowmachines. An old Elan with buggies (sp?) was the ticket and probably still would be.

That is a huge fire! Bad situation with all the homes involved. When I read about square miles, I'll pick out a place, so many miles away, and square it up, so it gives me an idea that I can relate to. The Alberta fire would cover a 7 mile wide swath from here to the next town, over in the next county!

There are a lot of homes around here that are built in the woods. My hunting buddy Moe lives in the woods, we talked about this 20 years ago. He told me then, "if the hill ever catches on fire, my house is toast." The woods up there are loaded with fuel, just like about every other square mile of this county.

I've got 50* now, and we've had some good rain in the last week or so. We need more rain.

Wanted to tell you about the ice storm we had back in February, the timber is still falling. Remember the roads that Moe and I cleared a few weeks ago? I was off work Thursday evening, I spent better than 4 hours clearing trees from the same darned roads, that we just cleaned out. I just had my little saw, but I had to refill with gas two times.

Talked to one of my landowners the other day, there were 2, sometimes 3 of them working, they spent 2 weeks rebuilding fence. He said most of it should be "cow proof." With the rain, I figure he's had more timber fall too.

The youtube videos about the Alberta fire are impressive. It wasn't the spot to have a leaky gas tank.

https://youtu.be/ieTQvIdG-Vo

Amazing. That fire is making National headlines here. Already talking about Billions of dollars.

The Alberta fire makes the little fire in Shenandoah National Park look like a small campfire, for comparison.

It seems that nearly all big forest fires are eventually stopped by mother nature. In northern Alberta, maybe they'll get a foot of wet heavy snow. The way the trees are burning, to the tops, it's going to take a pile of moisture.

Fort McMurry will be rebuilt, and I'd guess some of the other towns nearby are doing some serious thinking about fire protection. Something like a 1/2 mile wide swath of timber removal from the edge of town.

I had 60* this morning, and another little sprinkle overnight, our fire danger is zero. For now.

Thinking about that video, that just looks evil. And they darned sure waited until the last minute to leave.

The winds shifted and all hell broke loose. People had 30 minute notice to evacuate. The fire jumped over a kilometer in spots. Unless you have a firebreak of a mile, nothing can stop that.

I'm just back from seeing if I can bear bait. I put out one near the highway. Bush roads are still snowy and muddy. We are having rain now. That should help but we don't want the water rising too much because that brings other problems.