It's Gonna Be A Long, Hot Summer

The buzz these days is that we on the east side of the mountains might be in for a pretty horrific fire season this year--and more importantly, we might be in a pinch as to equipment and money to pay to fight the fires when they inevitably come. Two very wet winters in a row have given us lots of flammable cheatgrass and brush here in the valleys and foothills of Northern Nevada, and in the last couple of weeks temperatures have shot up to heights usually not seen until mid-summer. Yesterday afternoon thunderheads rolled in off the Sierra into the Truckee Meadows the way they usually do in July, giving up little rain but absolutely crackling with lightning bolts (most fires in the mountain west are started by lightning). If summer weather patterns really are here already, this summer might end up rivaling 1999, which was the last truly gigantic fire season this region suffered.

Fire is just one of those things you learn to deal with if you live in the West. Last year, although other parts of the state didn't get off so easily, we were very lucky in the Reno area as dire predictions of a rough summer didn't pan out and we had no major fires to speak of. It's probably too much to ask that we get so lucky two years in a row. Cycles of burning and regeneration have been at work here long before Western Civilization arrived less than 200 years ago and began to try to impose it's own version of Order on this dry landscape. In the end, all we can do is try to protect our property and our livelihoods and our loved ones as best we can with the resources we have. But I for one would feel a little better if we had a few more Chinook helicopters available.