Western Smoke

[JohnB]

Well carp. This fire season looks worse then last year and will likely KO my plans for travel to Oregon  this year.  The fire smoke map I just found from NWCG and CAL Fire don't look good for flying as of today.

Oregon Wildfire and Smoke Map | statesmanjournal.com

Boogers.

 

 

[Flash]

23 hours ago, JohnB said:

Well carp. This fire season looks worse then last year and will likely KO my plans for travel to Oregon  this year.  The fire smoke map I just found from NWCG and CAL Fire don't look good for flying as of today.

Oregon Wildfire and Smoke Map | statesmanjournal.com

Boogers.

 

 

I flew an ILS into Medford, Oregon on August 31 because the smoke dropped the visibility to two miles. Tops of the smoke layer were 10,000 feet in places.

I flew VFR into North Bend, Oregon on September 6 with no problems, but the smoke layer southeast of Arcata was up to 7,000 feet or so.

IFR, you can get where you want to go as long as the airport itself isn't inside a TFR. VFR, you might be able to get where you want to go. Depending on what part of Oregon you're going to, the air quality once you get out of the plane might be anything from terrific to awful.

[Igor_U]

Yesterday we got back from San Francisco (KSQL) and smoke was very thick from north of RDD to Columbia river, it was much worse then during our flight south few days before. We climbed to 15.5k at one point to stay on top and continued the rest at 14.5. Medford was reporting 1.25 SM or so... and until Columbia river, you couldn't really see the ground looking straight down. Not sure how some Willamette valley airports reported CLR. Smoke spread to the coast and was also East of the Cascades. Puget sound area was clear, with good visibility... We were sure happy we didn't need to land anywhere on our flight home.

 

[carusoam]

On 9/5/2021 at 10:18 AM, amillet said:

@carusoamwere you affected by NE flooding?  I was thinking about you watching the weather reports 

Thanks for asking Alan…

The track of the hurricane went right over head, as it was proceeding slowly… we got several inches of rain…

At the peak, 3” in one hour…

 

Fortunately, for me… the house is on top of a small hill… the street flooded with a couple of feet of water… 

New neighbor put his car out into the street to get it flooded…. Surprise!

Dozens of cars found all of the small rivers around town…. Most people didn’t know that there were so many small rivers… with tiny bridges that disappeared under the flood…

Fortunately, the water speed in the flat lands… didn’t get very hazardous…

 

Many basements were flooded…

Remember one important thing about basement flooding…  Turn off the gas lines!

Two buildings had their pilot lights get flooded out… the Nat gas filled the basement….  The explosions were incredibly loud and shook the house 10 miles away… similar to lighting striking on the property…

Dozens of people drowned in the state…

My family… were discussing plans A, B, and C…. Including Tornados… well in advance… All well here!!!

 

We have tornado experience from our TX days…  We don’t usually see them here in NJ.  South Jersey got a few small ones compared to Kansas scale…

 

Four roads in and out of town…  all flooded, un passable for a day…

My airport is 10 miles south of town… unable to reach if we wait too long…

The nearest airport… Central Jersey… is right on the Delaware Raritan Canal…. The low line of the state…  This is where Pres. Biden visited this weekend to see all of the flood damage in a town called Bound Brook….   Where the Brook becomes a giant river, and doesn’t stay very bound….

 

In the following days… there were mud stains left by the flood waters… many at 6+’ agl….

Driving along a road looking up at mud stains…. Gives you the feeling of driving a Chevy submarine…

We have environmental measuring tools to see how high the flood waters are…  they stopped working at about 40’ above flood stage…. 
 

All that happened in a matter of half a day… mostly overnight hours…. Kind of defining ‘flash flood’.

Crazy amounts of water everywhere, when it rains like that…  how much the ground can absorb depends on how dry it was beforehand…

The water leaves at about half as fast as it comes in…  

as long as the electricity stays on… and cell towers keep working…

The Nat gas system got shut down in some areas… a day after the explosions rang out…

The local corn crop looks pretty safe… no drought this year…   
 

Skies are clear… no smoke around here…   Probably gets washed out with the rain…

 

PP observations only, still have to go visit the airport…

Best regards,

-a-

[Ragsf15e]

16 hours ago, carusoam said:

Thanks for asking Alan…

The track of the hurricane went right over head, as it was proceeding slowly… we got several inches of rain…

At the peak, 3” in one hour…

 

Fortunately, for me… the house is on top of a small hill… the street flooded with a couple of feet of water… 

New neighbor put his car out into the street to get it flooded…. Surprise!

Dozens of cars found all of the small rivers around town…. Most people didn’t know that there were so many small rivers… with tiny bridges that disappeared under the flood…

Fortunately, the water speed in the flat lands… didn’t get very hazardous…

 

Many basements were flooded…

Remember one important thing about basement flooding…  Turn off the gas lines!

Two buildings had their pilot lights get flooded out… the Nat gas filled the basement….  The explosions were incredibly loud and shook the house 10 miles away… similar to lighting striking on the property…

Dozens of people drowned in the state…

My family… were discussing plans A, B, and C…. Including Tornados… well in advance… All well here!!!

 

We have tornado experience from our TX days…  We don’t usually see them here in NJ.  South Jersey got a few small ones compared to Kansas scale…

 

Four roads in and out of town…  all flooded, un passable for a day…

My airport is 10 miles south of town… unable to reach if we wait too long…

The nearest airport… Central Jersey… is right on the Delaware Raritan Canal…. The low line of the state…  This is where Pres. Biden visited this weekend to see all of the flood damage in a town called Bound Brook….   Where the Brook becomes a giant river, and doesn’t stay very bound….

 

In the following days… there were mud stains left by the flood waters… many at 6+’ agl….

Driving along a road looking up at mud stains…. Gives you the feeling of driving a Chevy submarine…

We have environmental measuring tools to see how high the flood waters are…  they stopped working at about 40’ above flood stage…. 
 

All that happened in a matter of half a day… mostly overnight hours…. Kind of defining ‘flash flood’.

Crazy amounts of water everywhere, when it rains like that…  how much the ground can absorb depends on how dry it was beforehand…

The water leaves at about half as fast as it comes in…  

as long as the electricity stays on… and cell towers keep working…

The Nat gas system got shut down in some areas… a day after the explosions rang out…

The local corn crop looks pretty safe… no drought this year…   
 

Skies are clear… no smoke around here…   Probably gets washed out with the rain…

 

PP observations only, still have to go visit the airport…

Best regards,

-a-

Glad you and your family are ok!  Really hope your airplane is as well!

[LevelWing]

Thought I'd do a periodic check in on the smoke situation. @Ragsf15e, how is it out your way?

[Ragsf15e]

8 hours ago, LevelWing said:

Thought I'd do a periodic check in on the smoke situation. @Ragsf15e, how is it out your way?

It’s really nice now!  I think there’s still some smoke down toward Northern California, but Washington and Oregon are looking good!  I flew Spokane to Newport Oregon 2 weeks ago and it was good.  Spokane to Kalispell MT today was beautiful!

[gacoon]

Flew from MfR to Bfl and then on to DVT today.  From Sac on down to BFL smoke was pretty thick, no foward viz, but straight down you could see the ground.  Had to fly the ILS at BFL.  Leaving BFL it was IMC until crested the mountains on the way to PMD.  California was nasty today.

[LevelWing]

13 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

It’s really nice now!  I think there’s still some smoke down toward Northern California, but Washington and Oregon are looking good!  I flew Spokane to Newport Oregon 2 weeks ago and it was good.  Spokane to Kalispell MT today was beautiful!

Perfect, thanks! Looking at the general route through Idaho into Montana in a couple weeks. Glad to hear it's finally clearing up.

[Ragsf15e]

5 hours ago, LevelWing said:

Perfect, thanks! Looking at the general route through Idaho into Montana in a couple weeks. Glad to hear it's finally clearing up.

Just flew back to Spokane from Glacier. Smoke.  Agrh!!  It wasn’t bad, plenty of vis, easy vfr, but there’s a brown layer around 9,000’.  No idea where it’s coming from.  It’s there because just yesterday I said we were all clear.

[LevelWing]

On 9/26/2021 at 2:14 PM, Ragsf15e said:

Just flew back to Spokane from Glacier. Smoke.  Agrh!!  It wasn’t bad, plenty of vis, easy vfr, but there’s a brown layer around 9,000’.  No idea where it’s coming from.  It’s there because just yesterday I said we were all clear.

Seems about right! I'd cross that stretch at probably 11,500 so it sounds like I'd be above the smoke and wouldn't have any problems. I'll ask again as I get closer. Thanks for the info!

[as350]

I flew RDM to VNY a couple days ago weaving in and out of all the TFRs in NorCal and most of the route was good viz except for a stretch between Fresno and Tehachapi. I was between 7.5K and 10.5K trying to find some air with good enough visibility to remain VFR. At times the ground wasn't visible. Flight visibility at times was around 3sm.

[Ragsf15e]

45 minutes ago, as350 said:

I flew RDM to VNY a couple days ago weaving in and out of all the TFRs in NorCal and most of the route was good viz except for a stretch between Fresno and Tehachapi. I was between 7.5K and 10.5K trying to find some air with good enough visibility to remain VFR. At times the ground wasn't visible. Flight visibility at times was around 3sm.

That is not fun.

Washington and most of Oregon seem to be 90% clear, and the remaining smoke isn’t significantly reducing vis.

[N201MKTurbo]

We should do like Jethro on the Beverly Hillbilly’s said. Build a big fan in Nebraska and blow the smoke to New Jersey.
 

If we could only back drive the windmills, we could get er done!

[Niko182]

I flew to davis yesterday. From just north of LA to penoche, tops where around 13800. Coming back today it was a lot better down to around 6 to 7000 feet.

[LevelWing]

@Ragsf15e How is it looking the past few days? I'd like to try and get through the area here soon if weather will hold and the smoke is clear. 

[Ragsf15e]

2 hours ago, LevelWing said:

@Ragsf15e How is it looking the past few days? I'd like to try and get through the area here soon if weather will hold and the smoke is clear. 

Smoke is definitely cleared out, but the weather is turning cool.  Be careful with icing.  Definitely want to be vfr as it cools down.  But smoke isn’t an issue anymore.

[LevelWing]

1 hour ago, Ragsf15e said:

Smoke is definitely cleared out, but the weather is turning cool.  Be careful with icing.  Definitely want to be vfr as it cools down.  But smoke isn’t an issue anymore.

I can only fly VFR right now (trying to get the plane to the avionics shop for the upgrade) so as long as it's a nice day I should be fine.