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Does Arizona's Dust Storm Mark The Beggining Of The Monsoon?
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/RLGCmnX_yH4?version=3&hl=en_US&hd=1
In New Mexico and Arizona we are waiting anxiously for some rain. Arizona’s July 5th wall of dust known as a haboob seems to have marked the beginning of the Monsoon. These walls of dust moving into the Phoenix area are not new, I remember them nearly every year when I was growing up. This year it was a particularly large one.
The weekend outlook from the NOAA shows the seasonal shift in winds and moisture from the south.
Wired Magazine On The Southwest Megafires
Wired.com’s article “Megafires May Change the Southwest Forever“
The plants and animals of the southwestern United States are adapted to fire, but not to the sort of super-sized, super-intense fires now raging in Arizona.
The product of drought and human mismanagement, these so-called megafires may change the southwest’s ecology. Mountainside Ponderosa forests could be erased, possibly forever. Fire may become the latest way in which people are profoundly altering modern landscapes.
The two closest fires to me are still burning. The Las Conchas Fire in the Jemez Mountains near Las Alamos is at 92,735 and is close to being the largest fire in New Mexico. The Pacheco Fire near Santa Fe and the Pecos Wilderness has burned a measly 10,000 acres and is 24% contained.
The Donaldson fire is much more south of me but has burned over 43,000 acres.
We are getting signs of Monsoon weather.
The Jemez Mountains Are On Fire
I figure it was only a matter of time, with the dry windy weather conditions, that there would be a fire in Jemez. The official name of the fire is the Las Conchas Fire and it’s putting on a spectacular smoke display (and not in a good way).
The Pacheco Fire continues to burn near Santa Fe.
The La Conchas Fire now has a Inciweb entry and is already at 3500+ acres.
The Pajarito Mountain ski area web came has live video of the fire.
A Giant Centipede In Austin Texas
Reddit user DamnColorblindness posted a picture titled “This was waiting for me by the front door this morning“.
I thought maybe the photo was in some tropical foreign country, but this centipede is located in Austin, TX. These are called Texas giant centipedes or Scolopendra heros. Though these can be found in New Mexico, I have never heard of a centipede this big in the Albuquerque area.
Reddit user Jozer99 says centipedes hate you.
Careful with centipedes. I did some graduate research on these little beasts, and came away with new-found fear and loathing.
Snakes only bite you if they feel threatened by you. Sharks want to eat seals, don’t look like a seal and you are A-OK. Tarantulas are more afraid of you then you are of them. Bees are just defending their nest from perceived threats.
On the other hand, centipedes hate you. Not just humans, you in particular. Centipedes are remarkable in that they have a special individual loathing for every creature on the planet, as well as many inanimate objects. If a centipede can sense your presence, it wants to do nothing more than to fuck you up. You don’t have to poke it with a stick, or step to near its nest, you just have to be somewhere nearby, and a centipede is more than happy to kamikaze you. It doesn’t help that many centipedes have poisonous front legs that have evolved into giant needle like pincers, and despite having several dozen legs, many larger centipedes are capable of moving at close to 10 miles per hour. They are also armor plated and are nearly impossible to squash. Centipedes spend their lives wandering around and picking fights with whatever creatures they happen to meet, be they insects, spiders, birds or even small mammals. They usually win, munch on their victims a bit, then move on to the next helpless victim.
Stay the fuck away from centipedes.
While common in Austin, they have painful but not deadly venom. I will take the occasional scorpion over one of these.
On Flickr, I posted a video of a centipede I found while walking on the sidewalk at work in Rio Rancho, NM. It’s 1/1000 the side of the one pictured in Austin.
Raton Track Fire Caused By An ATV
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/de21nEfXvmc?version=3&hl=en_US
The Raton Track Fire has burned more than 27,000 acres and caused 500 people to be evacuated, was caused by ATV spewing exhaust.
New Mexico State Forestry says exhaust particles from an ATV in the area is what most likely caused the dry brush to catch fire.
According to findings from investigators, the ATV driver or drivers trespassed onto private property then headed onto land owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
The Track Fire is 98% contained.
Pacheco Canyon Fire In Santa Fe, New Mexico
Say hello to New Mexico’s newest fire, the Pacheco Canyon Fire In Santa Fe. The fire was visible from my house in Rio Rancho on the day it started but I haven’t been able to see it since Saturday. On Sunday there was too much smoke from the Arizona Wallow fire to see much of anything.
InciWeb says the fire has burned over 3000 acres and describes it as extreme.
Wallow Fire Has Burned 500,409 Acres And Is 38% Contained
In Albuquerque, we haven’t had a whole lot of smoke in the last few days. It’s mostly been blowing south of the city. InciWeb says that 32 residences has been destroyed, which is impressive considering this is now the largest fire in Arizona’s history at over 500,000 acres.
The 4000 people fighting this fire deserve far more credit than I can possible give.
Motorola's 52nd Street Plant Still A Superfund Site
My parents didn’t work at the 52nd street Motorola plant (now a superfund site), built in 1956 near 48th Street and McDowell Road in Pheonix, Az but I think my Grandfather did. The EPA is still testing near the site nearly 30 year later.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials told about 15 residents at a community meeting Wednesday that their preliminary test results from some spots in the Lindon Park neighborhood, near 48th Street and McDowell Road, show some soil samples had unsafe levels of two industrial cleaning chemicals.
The chemicals were used at the former Motorola plant years ago to clean machinery and other equipment.
EPA scientists said the risk to residents’ health probably was small, but they believe they need to test for chemicals inside some homes to be sure.
“The kinds of soil vapor or the soil gas concentrations that we’re seeing do not lead us to believe that you would have the kinds of levels or exposure that would cause extreme health effects,” said Gerald Hiatt, an EPA toxicologist. “We may have some exposures inside homes that are high enough to create a (health) risk over long-term exposure, but I would be very, very surprised if we saw exposures that would create acute health effects.”
The neighborhood is the focus of an EPA Superfund monitoring and cleanup effort that has been under way for more than 20 years.
Apparently there was chemical tank that leaked into the soil in the 1980. It doesn’t surprise me from what I heard from my parents and what I saw working at electronic companies in the early 1990’s in Arizona. Companies were not that concerned about such safety issues.
The factory is now owned by On Semiconductor. It’s been remodeled and I couldn’t find any pictures of what the factory originally looked like except one on the semiconductor Museum’s page.
Intel's Chandler Plant Has An Explosion
Reuters “Blast at Intel microchip plant injures 7“
The blast of undetermined origin occurred shortly after 2 p.m. local time at one of two large Intel campuses in Chandler, Arizona, just southeast of the state capital, said Chandler Fire Department Battalion Chief Brad Miller
AZCentral “Intel workers hurt as substance ignites at Chandler plant“
Seven Intel employees were injured Tuesday afternoon when a substance ignited in a chemical-storage room at the company’s Ocotillo campus, Chandler Fire Chief Jeff Clark said.
“It was not an explosion as much as an ignition of something; we do not know what,” Clark said.
Phoenix Business Journal “Intel plant explosion in Chandler injures 7“
Chandler Fire Department spokesman Brad Miller said the department responded to a call shortly after 2 p.m. about an explosion in a support room for the Fab 22 facility at 4500 S. Dobson Road in Chandler.
Miller said one victim was transported immediately to Maricopa Medical Center with severe burns. Three others were transported to Chandler Regional Hospital with less severe injuries. Three others were treated and released on site. None of the injuries are considered to be life-threatening.
Several hundred workers from Fab 22 and neighboring Fab 32 were evacuated after the explosion, but as of 3:30 p.m., firefighters had safely cleared the building. The Chandler Fire Department now is assessing if there is any continued risk in the cleanup process.
Production has stopped at Fabs 22 and 32, but continues at the nearby Fab 12.
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