Burning Season

We need healthy forests if we want to protect our climate. As the climate changes, forests become more vulnerable to insect outbreaks, droughts and wildfires. Simultaneously, when our forests are destroyed, their carbon is released back into the atmosphere, further impacting climate change. It's a horrifying one-two punch.
— Chris Noth

I'd rather fight 100 structure fires than a wildfire. With a structure fire you know where your flames are, but in the woods it can move anywhere; it can come right up behind you.
— Tom Watson

For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Now, it's true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods-all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science-and act before it's too late.
— Barack Obama

Last Tuesday, at 6:30 a.m. I was taking the recycling out to the curb for pickup later in the day. It was just starting to become light out, but it was a very hazy sort of light. I glanced up and saw the moon just topping the trees – it was a very vivid shade of pinkish orange.

Naturally, I went back into the house for my phone to take a picture of it. Much to my disappointment, the colour didn’t translate well to the phone – sometimes my phone alters the colours it sees. So I went back into the house for my good camera and much to my surprise, the same thing happened. The colour was faded, save for a vivid ring around the edge.

It was at that point I realized it wasn’t the moon at all. First of all, it was perfectly round, which the moon wouldn’t have been because it was full several days earlier. And second, it was hanging in the eastern sky, making it the rising sun.

The smoke and fine ash from the surrounding forest fires we’d been experiencing made the air so hazy that not only was I able to take pictures of the sun, I could look at it with my naked eye.

Though the forest fires seem to be a fact of life elsewhere, this is the first time we’ve been impacted by them in this way. There were air quality warnings in effect. People were told to stay inside whenever possible and to consider wearing a mask if they had to go out for any length of time. Schools kept the children inside for recess.

That weekend I smelled smoke and thought the neighbors were having a fire – but they weren’t, it was the smoke-laden air being blown in the windows, which I closed when I realized what was happening. They’ve been closed ever since.

There is a total burn ban in effect. When the smoke was at its worst, there was sepia tone to the light outside. It was really eerie, and just a little creepy at times. There were discussions of what would you take with you if there was an evacuation order. Not that we were ever really in danger of that, but still . . .

But the air quality gradually returned to normal. And we’ve had enough rain to wash the fine dusting of ash away. I don’t know if that means the fires are under control now, but one can hope. And it’s also to be hoped that this is one trend that doesn’t continue.