Saturday, August 8, 2009

Day 5 - no clouds, plenty o' smoke

As you can see from the photo, we wound up on the rim of a famous canyon today, and Craig felt the need to hop down to a boulder for a photo opportunity. But that's near the end of the story...

We started out with a plan to chase fires, since there were several lightning-started fires from yesterday's storms. We also wanted to set out a RAWS and leave it to get some solid data.

Everything fell into place somewhere northwest of FLG on national forest land (Kaibab). We ran through the smoke plume of a fire (supposedly "managed"). The unusually deep trough that passed through yesterday not only swept out every molecule of moisture from Arizona, but also produced strong winds (max gust at FLG today was 51 mph). As a result, the smoke plume was very well-confined to lower levels - interesting.

We then found a really nice spot to set up the RAWS. Off the road a bit, and in an open flat plateau region. Yesterday's fire-drill assembly of the RAWS (as a storm approached) was replaced by a more orderly set up today! We also launched a balloon. The RAWS spot was so perfect that we decided to leave the RAWS overnight!

So then, in our capacity of chasing fires - there being not one single cloud in the entire sky all day (well, OK - one small cirrus streak, but...) - we pushed north to look at another smoke plume we could see. And lo!! Suddenly there we were at the Grand Canyon. I truly believe I could come here every weekend and just sit and stare, and it wouldn't get old.

For some students it was the first look, for others the n-th, but we ALL enjoyed the views. Mike and Craig led a dash downhill, with most students in tow. I stayed behind to read the story of an elite athlete who did the same - and died of dehydration. So there.

After the excitement of the grand canyon, plus great views of a fire burning on the north rim, we hit a pizza place hard, devouring every crumb in site. For slow eaters like me, it's scary!

After a buzz past the RAWS site, we got back around 8:20 pm - and went straight back into class to work on verifying yesterday's forecast and discuss tomorrow's situation. Class ended at 10:30 pm - AGAIN!

Faculty are trashed!!!

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