Another year and more fires. As we are coming to the end of a La Nina cycle (a double one), we would like to think it is getting wetter outside, however it is dry, dry, dry. Relative humidity is between 3 - 10%. If you have been trying to survive, keeping an eye on, or worrying about the High Park Fire or the Whitewater-Baldy Complex Fires (and way too many others), there have been many tweets and discussions about the fires. I've pulled together some images with links to the resources for the past few days to try to make sense of the descriptions. Thoughts of safety and rain go out to those of you impacted by this fire.

Incident Information System
http://www.inciweb.org/
Overview of the current wildfires around the U.S. including

Current and official information on the High Park Fire  from Larimer County Emergency Information
http://larimer.org/emergency/emergency_detail.cfm?nam_id=85

4:48 PM - Jun 11  The official cause of the High Park Fire has been confirmed as lightning.  The High Park Fire remains at 36,930 acres with 0% containment.

'Photos' of the fire plume from Space (using MODIS)High Peak Fire near Ft Collins, Colorado

June 11, 2012

June 10, 2012

Source: Fire Detection Maps with MODIS images
http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/imagery.php

Perimeter of the fire

source: Fire Data in Google Earth using modis

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/googleearth.php

source: Google map of High Peak Fire from Daily Camera/Denver Post
https://maps.google.com/?q=http://extras.denverpost.com/media/maps/kml/high-park-wildfire-2012.kml&msa=0&t=p&output=embed&z=12

 source: http://www.9news.com/images/High-Park-Fire-Perimeter-36930acres.jpg

source: www.geomac.gov

WFAS Fire Danger Map
http://www.wfas.net/maps/

 

source: Fire Potential Briefing for Rocky Mountain Area
http://gacc.nifc.gov/rmcc/predictive/outlook/Fire_Weather_Briefing/Fire_Potential_Briefing.html

June 11, 2012 Smoke plumes map

June 10, 2012 Smoke plumes map

source: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm
GIS-type viewer showing fire locations and smoke plumes

main page:
Wildfire Interactive Maps
from NOAA National Geophysical Data Center
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/wildfire.shtml

 

USDA Forest Service Direct Readout Data Portal - Under Land Products - Fire and Thermal Anomalies
http://directreadout.fs.fed.us/main/product?familyname=Fire+and+Thermal+Anomalies
Please read the product description to understand how these images were created and to interpret the colors

today's wind: hint.fm/wind/

more resources:http://forestry.about.com/od/forestfire/tp/wildfire_maps.htm

Interagency Real Time Smoke Monitoring for California and New Mexico : http://www.satguard.com/usfs4/realtime/fleet.asp
These graphs show the air quality in hourly and 24 average concentrations

NOAA GOES imagery: http://newweb.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/

http://gacc.nifc.gov/rmcc/
http://wildfiretoday.com/2012/06/10/high-park-fire-update-and-map-june-10-2012-very-active-saturday-night/

http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/wildlandfire/latest-news-map.html 

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=78236 

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=78090 

Pine Beetle Kill Maps: http://www.fortheforest.org/page_27 

 http://csfs.colostate.edu/pages/mountain-pine-beetle.html

Learn more!

Using  Forensic  Science  to  Solve  a  Wildlife  Crime

Become an investigator of a wildlife crime with NSTA’s forensics CSI curriculum book. Practice eight forensic lab procedures. Then piece together clues from the crime reports, interviews, and physical evidence you have analyzed. Finally, identify the wildlife victim, human suspect and wildlife laws that were broken. 

Date/time:      Saturday, July 14 and Sunday, July 15,  9:00 – 5:00

Credit:            1.0 semester credit from Colorado School of Mine

Grade level:  6-12

Location:       The Wildlife Experience, 10035 Peoria Street, Parker, CO 80134

Fee:                $135 ($50 tuition,  $75 registration, $10 admission fee to TWE)

                        Optional:  $25 curriculum book: Using Forensic Science to Solve a  Wildlife Crime (pay at workshop)

Questions?        

Call Laura Arndt, 303-660-6925 or email to laura.arndt1@gmail.com

To register:  Send Name, address, email, phone number, What/where you teach, payment to

          Nature Connections, 1779 Ward Circle, Franktown, CO 80116.