Fire

The sky is the color of an ugly bruise. The Silver fire is over 100,000 acres and still moving, licking its hungry chops at the bone-dry timber in its path. Humidity in town has continued to run in the single digits until today, where at last check, it was a moist 10%, down from 17% earlier in this morning. I don’t know what is genuine cloud and fire cloud. But it is eerie to say the least. We may not hit the forecast 98 degrees. Small relief.

Yesterday was worse. The wind shifted and the smoke and ash filled the air here in Silver City and the Mimbres Valley. The sun was a hazy red blotch in the sky, tiny ashes floated down and my house smelled like a campfire. At 6 pm yesterday, the temp was 95.

Everyone is watching and waiting for a break. Ted the Smokejumper (my upstairs neighbor in for the fire season from Big Sky, Montana), chatted with me yesterday when he got home from the Grant County airport base. He, like the others in town, is watching a weather pattern that is supposed to bring rain – thunderstorms – over the next week. Temps should drop by 10 degrees. Who ever thought I would be happy with temps in the mid-80’s? Not I. My friends here are thrilled at the prospect that it may rain on the 4^th of July. We shall see.