Western widfires

[farmermark]

Hi John,

Do the wildfires in Colorado have any effect on weather like a major volcanoe can? I'm guessing not since the amount of particulate put in the atmosphere are less and not of the same nature.

There was a large ring around the moon last night and was wondering if that from the fires also. Usually its from ice crystals in the atmosphere, right?

Loving the forecasts!!

Mark

 

[jd]

Effects from the wildfires will be much smaller on a global or even hemispheric scale than with even a small volcanic eruption. The reasons are two fold. First, even small volcanic eruptions put a lot more particulate matter into the atmosphere than a even the biggest forest fire- perhaps even on the scale of 100's to 1000's of time more. Secondly, the volcanic eruption sends the ash far up into the atmosphere, even to the level of the stratosphere. Once it is there, it is very slow to fall out, sometimes taking a year or more, where as smoke from a forest fire will last on the order of days. Because of this shorter time period, the ash cannot travel as far and impact as many areas.

The one thing that forest fires can tend to do is make the sky redder at sunset and sunrise, although right now the air in the Midwest is not really coming from the direction of CO.

-John

 

[farmermark]

John,

When does the monsoon season for the SW states area typically start?

Hope this helps with the fires in Colorado

Mark

 

[jd]

They are getting into monsoon season now, but that can be a double edged sword, as it can bring about more rains, which is good, but can also lead to more lightning strikes from storms that do not produce much rain and that is bad.

The fire season really does not end until the autumn.

-John

 

[frnash]

John,
When does the monsoon season for the SW states area typically start?
Hope this helps with the fires in Colorado
Mark

From the NWS Forecast Office, Phoenix, AZ (click → ) 11:00 AM MST Friday June 15, 2012 - Today is the first day of monsoon season (quoted here in part, click the link for more details):

Since 2008 the NWS has declared the period from June 15th thru September 30th as the monsoon season for Arizona. …
Prior to 2008 the season was variably declared based on average dew point readings for Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (KPHX). …
Three consecutive days where the average dew point reached or exceeded 55° F was the measure used. [The first of those three days was considered the start of the monsoon, while the end of the monsoon was never clearly defined. -FRN]
• • •
Historically monsoon seasons tend to vary in rainfall from year to year. …
Bottom Line: There is a high variability in monsoon seasons in Arizona, both in terms of 55° dew point days as well as in actual rainfall amounts. In addition, there can be a wide spatial variability in monsoon rainfall.

More monsoon statistics for Phoenix (curiously published by the NWS Forecast Office in Tucson, AZ!?) can be found (click → ) here.