Boulder Wildfire in Sunshine Canyon

Boulder has been extremely dry - no rain, no snow.  The drought caught up with us this morning.  A man who had to visit the bathroom at 1:40 this morning, glanced out his window and saw flames on the wall of Sunshine Canyon, to the west of town.  He called 911, the emergency number, and reported it.  Thanks to his call, reverse 911 calls started going out, and over 1,000 house were evacuated.  People and small pets can go to the East Boulder Community Center, and large animals have been evacuated to the County Fairgrounds.
   Beatrice and I awoke to heavy smoke and the smell of burning this morning.  We thought that someone had set a trash dumpster on fire - but could look out the window and see smoke billowing up directly to the west of our building.  So we immediately turned on the local news and found out about the Sunshine Canyon fire.  It's a block to the south, and then 1.5 miles to the west of us.  At this time, 12 hours after the original call, the fire is 20 % contained, and has burned 70 acres...  Luckily, no homes or buildings have caught fire.  Besides fire fighters on the ground, both helicopters and planes have been dropping water and slurry to deter the spread of the flames.  I hope it gets contained completely soon...
   Usually March is one of the snowiest months of the year in, and around, Boulder.  So far this month, we have had 1/8 inch of precipitation - a 6-hour drizzle.  Our usual high temperatures in March are in the upper 40s and low 50s; yesterday we reached 82 degrees, and the regular high temperatures have been in the 60s and 70s.  Today we have a high wind watch, typical of March.
   I picked up a client from the Denver Airport last night at 8:30, and he asked me if I thought it would snow again this year, because he was thinking about taking his snow tires off his car.  I laughed.  I told it was going to snow at the end of this month, in April, and probably the last snowfall would be the second week of May.  He was aghast - and wanted to know if I'd read that in the Farmer's Almanac.  I told him, "Nope.  I feel it in my bones."

Photos of the Sunshine Canyon fire:

 

Lips and Fires

I looked really weird yesterday...  The inside of my lips and cheeks were swollen.  Very swollen.  so swollen that my lips were curled up, out, and back.  My upper lip was brushing the bottom of my nose, almost blocking the nostrils; my bottom lip was on my chin.  The interior of my lips were the size of a bratwurst sausage, and the color of fresh liver.  It was unbelievable...  And very ugly, too.  I finally went to an urgent care office. After six hours of icing and ten antihistamine shots, my lips were pretty much back to normal.  Neither I, nor the doctors or nurses, have any idea what started it off.  I have not eaten or drunk anything that I normally don't.  (I do have food allergies, and I'm very picky about what I eat, and whether or not I'll try something, just because I do have alarming reactions at times.)  Today, my lips are almost back to normal, but they are still producing a tingling feeling.
   We've had several more wildfires take off this morning - plus one on Rabbit Mountain near Lyons last night.  At last count, four buildings were lost.  The winds are horrendous today.  They started up around 2 this morning - pretty constant between 20 and 35 mph, with gusts expected up to 75 mph - and we've already had an 89 mph gust in Boulder this morning.  I had to take our welcome wreath off the front door at 3 this morning, and we saw our balcony foot mat out in the middle of the parking lot when we got up.  I haven't yet felt the building sway - that takes a gust of 90+ - but it will probably happen.  The winds are Chinook winds, and they dry everything out; the high temperature expected today is 73 degrees.  I really hope that we don't have any more fires break out!

Rabbit Mountain last night

Weld County yesterday afternoon