Smoke in the Air

'Tis the season to be careful. On Tuesday the Santa Fe National Forest announced Stage 1 campfire restrictions. Last Thursday's New Mexican had a long story about what fireworks are (sparklers, smoke bombs, cone fountains) and are not (short version: everything else) allowed this year.
       Earlier in the week, the City's Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Specialist office sent out an email about "the smoky haze in the city and surrounding areas. The smoke is from (believe it or not) Arizona. There are currently 6 large fires in Arizona for a combined total of 164,108 acres, 13 structures lost, with over 1500 personnel battling the fires..." (the numbers have grown; the Cave Creek Fire is now at 199,368 acres. 37% contained)
       We have a small section of wildfire links on our New Mexico & Southwest pages. For the most up-to-date briefings on current fires in the southwest go to the SWCC Morning Intelligence Briefing, updated daily around 8:30 AM. Overall our drought situation remains improved (the graphic at Drought Monitor doesn't look very severe.) But the weather report in the Morning Briefing says, "...critical fire weather day from the central mountains west due to very low relative humidity... very poor relative humidity recovery overnight and high Haines index values..." That graphic is scary looking.