Watch & Listen to the fire potential forecast

Summary: dry air & windy... National Interagency Fire Center RMACC http://bit.ly/kwZvk #boulderfire

 See that yellow - red zone? That is dry air that will continue to pour into Colorado for the next 3 days. We could use a tropical storm here right now, hold the lightning though .

Four Miles Canyon Fire resources

Google Earth wi/ MODIS and AVHRR data

Over the past 2 days I've gathered quite a compendium of official and unofficial fire map sources, fire/air/police online scanners, discussion sites (which in some ways are more detailed than the Boulder OEM because folks are listening to the scanners and plotting the locations of fires and some structures - something the Boulder cty resources just haven't had time to do), and other streaming sources (such as the local Fox news - no politicizing there, the only place that I found that streams their news).

You can also get KMZ/KML's to pull into Google Earth and provide very good descriptors of what MODIS is detecting. Let's start there:

First, the current 'official' perimeter is available as a KML from http://www.geomac.gov/
(pulls from http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov  file name: CO-BLX-FUL0 Four Mile Canyon 9-7-2010 0600.kml)
(full url http://www.geomac.gov/asp-bin/geomac_KML/kmlHelper.htm?http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/outgoing/GeoMAC/2010_fire_data/KMLS/CO-BLX-FUL0%20Four%20Mile%20Canyon%209-7-2010%200600.kml)

Then download interior details for Sep 6 and 7 from the Forest Service Remote Sensing Applications Center
http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/googleearth.php
This data pulls all of the current fires in one KML. I pulled the current Fire Detections (http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/data/kml/conus_latest_modis.kml) and historical and animations (http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/data/kml/conus_hist/) to see how the fire has moved according to MODIS. GOES and AVHRR (http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/data_avhrr/kml/conus_latest_avhrr.kml)  are also available from the same site (GOES is very gross scale: http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/data_goes/kml/conus_latest_goes.kml). Selecting Large Incidents shows that this fire is currently requiring a Type 2 incident management team.

Then for a sobering realization of how many homes are in this area: http://www.bouldercounty.org/sheriff/emergency/map_options.htm select Option 2, complete  hill shade map set: http://www.bouldercounty.org/sheriff/pdf/mapbook/map_set_hillshade.zip
And here's Denver Post's current map

Also clicking on Current Large Fires on the Forest Service Remote Sensing Applications Center then clicking on the icon 10 for Four Mile, the current info is this:
Fire Information Report for Four Mile Canyon
Wildland Fire Incident
Report Date: 08-SEP-10
Burnt Area:    6,168 Acres (106% increase from yesterday)
Location:    Boulder County, CO (5 miles west of dowtown Boulder, CO)
Cause:    Under Investigation
Incident Team Type:    IMT Type 2
Team Leader:    Richardson
Containment Status:    0% contained)
Expected Containment:    Unknown
Fuels:    Heavy dead and down with bug mortality in the Douglas-fir High 1200000.00 201PRIM


Other sources of information:

Boulder office of emergency management
http://boulderoem.com/component/content/article/5
http://www.bouldercounty.org/newsroom/templates/bocodefault.aspx?articleid=2291&zoneid=1

Incident Information Systems (and maps)
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2119/  -- many links from here too
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/wildfire.shtml
http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/activefiremaps.php http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/#
http://www.geomac.gov/
http://www.wfas.net/maps/
http://forestry.about.com/od/forestfire/tp/wildfire_maps.htm

Map of the perimeter (~ 10  mb)
http://www.bouldercounty.org/bocc/FourMileFireWebPerimeter.pdf

more maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=116450738350250475290.00048f9b63b159a7d3dcf&ll=40.049595,-105.405021&spn=0.026117,0.02399&z=15&iwloc=00048f9b6746f57de0f00

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ptab=2&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=107456750744474099138.00048f9bf332e01bf3b40

ESRI map
http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/wildfire-map/index.html

maps (from inciweb)
http://www.terraunbound.com/Events/Four-Mile-Canyon-Fire/13676273_RNaQi#998866037_Sh6MF

radio scanners
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=cwp&ctid=247

info about the scanners
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=wp&feedId=591

Boulder County Fire
(((Stereo Feed))) LEFT Side = Red-3 Simplex *** Right Side = Red-6 Repeater

Boulder County Sheriff and Fire

Colorado State Patrol (Denver Dispatch)
~ Stereo Feed ~ LEFT Side = Troops 1A/C and 6A/B/D *** RIGHT Side = Troops 1D, 3A/B/C and 6C

Rocky Mountain National Park
This feed is temporarily being used to monitor the Boulder Fourmile Canyon fire Air Operations. See additional details page for feed details.

Boulder county wildfire info
http://www.bouldercounty.org/newsroom/templates/bocodefault.aspx?articleid=2291&zoneid=1


Fox news live streaming
http://www.kdvr.com/news/livestreaming/

time lapse of the fire Sept 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfXIqbfehxs&feature=player_embedded


Blogs w/ pictures and satellite images
http://www.cejournal.net/?p=3723
http://andrewhy.de/four-mile-canyon-fire-2010-boulderfire/
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/category/fire-detection

Pictures

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=45675

look for channel 9, 7, 4 - they have pics
http://www.wunderground.com/wximage/viewsingleimage.html?mode=singleimage&handle=bjcali&number=141&album_id=55&thumbstart=0&gallery=VIPPICT#slideanchor
http://www.wunderground.com/wximage/viewsingleimage.html?mode=singleimage&handle=emp33&number=0&album_id=0&thumbstart=0&gallery=VIPPICT#slideanchor

discussion
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&oe=UTF8&msa=19&msid=116450738350250475290.00048f9b63b159a7d3dcf
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ptab=2&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=19&msid=107456750744474099138.00048f9bf332e01bf3b40
http://search.twitter.com/search?had_popular=true&q=%23boulderfire&result_type=recent

Planning for a rally ride

This is a work in progress :) We're meeting up with about 20 of our closest riding friends that we've met over the past two years at the Potato Ranch Rally near Durango, Colorado. Its just 16 days away - and we're so 'cited! Its not a 'sanctioned' rally in the way of sponsors - nah, we do our own agenda and fun :)

Here's our route so far (link)

I've had my bike lowered, adjustable levers installed, throttle fixed, new knobbie tires installed (Mefo). The tires have been awesome on dirt and gravel. Wolfram is having a service done to the Dakar. 


We might be inducting a friend to our BeginnerBiker circle - so we're very pysched about that.


Gotta remember to do a full T-CLOC , especially checking the coolant. The wild card is the weather - will it snow? How much cold and hot weather gear do we need to bring? Food? wa?


More to come!

A Grand View and Circles

After multiple trips going north and south along the Peak-to-Peak highway, we're ready to find some new routes. Turns out that Bob has never ridden Lookout Road toward the west - so today that is where we headed. However, I didn't take any pics... something about hand holding a camera while also trying to keep control of a bike inhibits my picture taking.


Riding down Boulder Canyon we ended up behind a covey of touring bikes (no pic for that either), Goldwings and the like. Very impressive riding through the narrows - and we would have continued riding with them but they turned off at a gas station once we got to Boulder.


And there are butterflies flitting around - I still do my best to avoid them if I can. 

We wound our way through Boulder traffic and off to the east we went.The trees here are starting to bud and flower (imagine white flowered trees) so riding was filled with sweet fragrances along Valmont and Isabelle roads. We had a short section of 287 and hardly any traffic - got to blow some carbon out of the engine for the few miles until Lookout. We ooh'd and ahhh'd as the front range and continental divide mountains rose into view as crested the hill - somewhere I have some pics of this, again, not today.


Since it was lunch time I took Bob to one of my local favorites, Ajuua Restaurant in Niwot. While the wait-staff watched the Rockies and Braves battle out game three of their away-stand, Bob and I munched on some great carnitas and shrimp and sipped on iced tea.


After waddling back to our bikes, I decided that now would be a good time for me to practice slow speed U-turns, so off we went to a local deserted business parking lot near where I work. It wasn't working for me, so I had Bob demonstrate one more time:

It still wasn't working for me - my circles were still the width of parking lot and 4 lanes wide. And then I had him stand in the middle of the 'ideal' circle so I could focus on him. Voila! Suddenly I could make smaller circles - half hour later they were almost acceptable. It wasn't so much that I hasn't turning my head, it was that I didn't know where to look! 


By now our lunches had worked their way to where we really needed to -- so off to Celestial Seasonings we rode. In addition to the awesome tea shop is their tasting room where you can try any tea that they sell. My new acquisition was the Acai Mango Zinger, which provided a nice robust flavor - although I wonder if its a sustainable product. 

Of course, what ride is complete without finishing with washing the bikes. 

To my newly retired friend B0be

I am retired.
I do whatever I want
wanna go skiing?

Ski Bums ski a lot
Retired folks ski much more
welcome to freedom

today I will ski
tomorrow I will ski more
because, I am freeeeee!!!!!