Tag: Sky

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Arizona's Wallow Fire In Albuquerque

Sandias Covered In Smoke From The Wallo Fire In Az

The view of the Sandia Mountains from my front window the last few days has been obscured by smoke from the Wallow fire near the New Mexico border in Alpine, Arizona. This fire is affecting the Albuquerque area by creating a cloud of smoke which besides the smell has caused some ash to fall from the sky.

Normally I have a clear view of the Sandias except when we have a storm.

This one is over

It’s bad enough that the last two nights I have had to turn off the cooler because it was filling the house with the smell of forest fire.

This is going to be a bad year for fires unless we get some rain, which the Albuquerque area hasn’t received a significant rain storm since early this year.

The Arizona Republic as a good FAQ on the Wallow Fire and An image from the NOAA shows the smoke plume (I don’t know if the NOAA has a direct source to this image).

Wallo Fire Smoke NOAA

Update 06/07/2011: The trend for the last few days is the smoke goes away during the day and settles back in during the evening. It feels like a nuclear winter. Here are a few pictures I took from the office building last night, note the red dot which is the sun.

Wallow fire smoke as seen in Rio Rancho, NM

Wallow Fire smoke as seen in Rio Rancho, NM

While the smoke here in Rio Rancho and Albuquerque is bad, it’s not nearly as bad as for those who actually live where the fire is. The local paper The White Mountain Independent has information about all of the evacuations in the area.

Latest map from the NOAA.

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Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta UFO Identified As Balloon

I happened across this site where they took a picture of a UFO (UFO means unidentified, not a ailen spaceship). The photo is from the 1991 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

They have a great explantion of what they saw

One might be led to believe that I actually saw a UFO that is an extra-terrestrial vehicle that was large but far away. The fact is that I saw it at a crowded sitr and in a crowded sky. The photo was taken during a hot air balloon mass ascension and a balloon flew behind this curious object after I had taken the photo. Thus I was able to determine the object was no more than a few feet in diameter. My guess (and it is only a guess) is that it was some sort of mylar balloon reflecting the sunlight and caught in the wind, even though it appeared to be stationary and rotating from my vantage point. Or who knows….Maybe they are just really small aliens attending the balloon fiesta like I was!</blockquote

It’s good to see an actual explanation and not instantly assuming it’s a spaceship. As much as I would like to believe, the truth is really out there. I’m almost sure it’s always man made. 

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Lasers + Desert = Kaboom

Wonder what all this vast New Mexico desert is good for? Well some scorpions and tarantulas might call it home but humans use it to test out weapons. The latest is something from science fiction, lasers to blow up missiles. I’ve been out to the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in the middle of the New Mexico and can tell you that they’ve got some weird looking buildings and equipment out there. IT’s been a while but they use to launch missiles from the base quite a bit. It’s kind of a strange feeling when your leaving for work at 5am and can see a while streak with a bright ball at the top of it streaking through the sothern sky.

If you don’t bother to read the press release here is the link to the pictures and video.