Looks like Washington might be facing another drought this summer.
Washington was going through a drought the summer I came down here, too. While I wasn’t really complaining (gee — more sun? shucks!), I also didn’t really realize the extent of it until I headed out with some friends to see the Barenaked Ladies at the Gorge in central Washington. On the way out we passed a reservoir that was no more than half full, the air was scented with the smell of smoke from the forest fires raging across the state, and at one point the sunset was nearly obscured by smoke from a fire just a few miles away.
After getting everything set up at the campsite, we packed ourselves into two cars, and headed down a quicker route back to the Gorge for the show. The way there was fascinating — currently, huge amounts of the state of Washington are on fire, and there were amazing clouds of smoke from the fires just 40 miles away or so in the sky. The smoke turned an otherwise clear night to a completely opaque murk. Just fascinating to see — and the smell of burning pine in the air was an added reminder that all this stuff wasn’t that far away.
Growing up in Anchorage and now living in Seattle, neither droughts nor forest fires are generally something I have to be overly worried about most of the time (earthquakes, windstorms, and the occasional volcanic ashfall are more likely to crop up on any given day in Anchorage). When they come along, though, they’re often not that far away, either.
iTunes: “Swamp Thing (Southern Comfort)” by Grid from the album Music for Dancing (1994, 7:14).