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Black Forest Fire


Six days ago, a fire started in Black Forest, Colorado. The wind was very strong, and the fire quickly grew to become the most destructive fire in the history of Colorado.

The smoke cloud looks a lot like this cumulus cloud;
both were formed from warm rising air.
That afternoon, I was able photograph the smoke cloud. You can see one of my photos at the top of this post. Notice the lighter area near the top of the cloud; that's caused by water vapor condensing out of the smoke.

The following day, the air where we live was full of smoke from the fire. Then the wind changed and blew the smoke away, and we had fresh air for a while. That night, we were smoked out again.

Wind that keeps changing over a wildfire can be bad. As we later learned, the fire had turned around and burned areas that had originally been spared. Not good.

As of today, the fire is still burning, 75% contained. It has so far destroyed at least 483 homes and partially damaged 16 homes. Luckily, only 2 people were killed; the other Black Forest residents evacuated on time.
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  1. KMacSeptember 6, 2013 at 8:17 AM

    It was visible for 150 miles. It closed one of the mountain passes we went through on our trip the day after we went through it. In Salt Lake City we saw planes picking up water from the Great Salt Lake. Yes, it really was dry in Colorado.

    -Colin

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