BWCA Forest fire

[johnhens]

Fire has burned 11,000 acres.
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/ ... id/209156/

[Blackdog]

Mpls Star Tribune article has total up to 60,000 acres burned as of 9-13

http://www.startribune.com/local/129724773.html

[Midwest Ed]

This high resolution satellite photo was taken yesterday at noon CDT. The red outline is the area of high ground temperatures from infrared detectors:



Less than 2 hours later this second photo was taken. The smoke plume is about to entirely cover IRNP. You can see the northeastern half of IR in a clear spot in front of the leading edge of the smoke plume.



The following animated GIF file was taken a day earlier on Sunday (9/11):

[Backpacker534]

The technology we have today always amazes me. Being able to see such a large area like this from space with great resolution and clarity is really wild.
That time-lapse image is very interesting too. I hope they manage to get that fire under control before losing too much of that wilderness area.

[Ingo]

I hope they manage to get that fire under control before losing too much of that wilderness area.

Fire is natural and necessary for wilderness areas, and as such is not a loss but a gain. The problem lies in protecting property and lives while letting nature take it's course in undeveloped areas. Hopefully everyone in those affected areas is out!

Ed, where did you find the satellite pics?

[johnhens]

The smoke from the fire is making NE IL hazy.

[fonixmunkee]

It smells like toasted marshmallows here in Duluth & Superior because of the fire.

Those images are very impressive to see. We have a contingent on standby here ready to go up and support the fire-fighting efforts, if need be. Currently, they are sending a few National Guard helicopters up to try and suppress the fire.

[head2north]

I was lucky to spend over 45 days up in the Boundary Waters this summer (as a trade off - no Isle Royale 2011 trip) with two of my weekend trip
areas being consumed by the fire - Lake Three area and now Lake Polly.

I just returned yesterday from a 17 day solo trip and was frightenly overtaken by aftermath smoke from a control burn on Tuesday, September 6.
I had just portaged from Alice into Thomas and smoke suddenly engulfed the area. I spotted another canoe and they informed me of the
fire some 10 miles to the southwest. In a futile effort to escape the sufficating smoke i spent the night some five more miles northeast on Lake Sagus.
A sunset photo is attached and the sky was clear - that is all smoke in picture.

I rounded American Point on Saganaga Lake and a surreal sight of the plume some thirty + miles away. It looked like a volcano had just erupted.
I stopped at both Ranger Stations in Grand Marais and Tofte to get updates on the journey home. Here is the official website link they provided :

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2534/

Nonetheless, I have been receiving phone calls in regards to my safety (I actually exited five days before my scheduled exit this coming Friday).

[Midwest Ed]

Ed, where did you find the satellite pics?

The two hi-res are from NASA.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

Click "Images"
Then click "Natural Hazards"
Then pick and click a map pin link. There’s one on Minnesota. Plenty of other interesting ones as well.

**********
The animation came from the NOAA weather service (Duluth website). The NASA site actually linked to the NOAA.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cm ... 7&source=0

**********
Here’s another useful site, tracking the incident command center for all wildfiress. The site is kind of finicky. The Minnesota fire was missing when I linked it but was present earlier today. Amazing, the number of active fires.

http://www.inciweb.org/

[MikeT]

Great info everyone! Gotta love the technology.

We will be keeping an eye on this as we head towards Grand Portage. We will be in Marquette Thursday night and GP on Friday for the boat on Saturday. Maybe the rain will bring it under control before we hit the island.

Thanks for sharing.

[Midwest Ed]

For all you Google Earth fans. . .

Here's a link to a Google Earth script (KMZ) file that superimposes the above hi resolution photos onto GE with a time slider.

http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/im ... 011255.kmz

[Tampico]

I hope they manage to get that fire under control before losing too much of that wilderness area.

Fire is natural and necessary for wilderness areas, and as such is not a loss but a gain. The problem lies in protecting property and lives while letting nature take it's course in undeveloped areas. Hopefully everyone in those affected areas is out!

Ed, where did you find the satellite pics?

This.

Much talk about this as a tragedy. It's far from it. Who put the fires out 200 years ago?

This is how nature survives.

[johnhens]

Rain helps to contain fire.
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/ ... /homepage/

[johnhens]

One 5 hour period of growth of the BWCA fire unprecedented.
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/ ... id/210082/

[fonixmunkee]

I've seen some friends' pictures of the fire in the BWCA. It's pretty amazing to see. Even a good 10-15 miles away, it looks like Hell.

There's also been some other pretty harrowing experiences in the BWCA due to the fire, specifically this story: http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/s2282549.shtml where two people had to hide underneath their kayak in the lake to avoid the flames and smoke.

And this situation in the BWCA makes me want to invest in a SPOT: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/ ... id/209648/