From: Jason A. Cotting (p2ranger@anvilgear.com)
Date: Mon Feb 17 2003 - 18:09:34 CST
John is right, if things were getting a lot better out there, you'd be
hearing about record blizards left and right out West. The web cam at
Angelfire Resort shows some snow down in the Merino Valley which is good:
http://www.angelfireresort.com/winter/index.php?PAGE=webcam
But Philmont's lack of rain goes back several years. Every year I've worked
at Philmont, there has been a fire ban on during some part of the summer.
Can anyone remember the last time Rangers cooked coblers in a dutch oven the
first night? I can. There are no longer any Rangers working at Philmont who
has been around back when they did cook coblers, unfortunately a lost art
now. Winter 2001 saw a good amount of snow, I think it was 110% of yearly
average. Before the Spring got around to melt the snow, there was a bunch
of winds that blew most of that snow away. Followed by a fairly dry summer,
completely dry fall and a very low snow fall winter, which led to a dry
spring and then the fire of 2002.
Last summer, there were some good year round water sources that were dry at
the start of the season. The Ponil River, in places, was a trickle. In
talking to an elderly resident of Springer, he told me that the last time he
had seen Eagle Nest Lake as low as it was, he was a little boy. At the
begining of the summer, the National Forest Service wasn't real excited
about us using stoves in the back country. Something Philmont has to have.
The speed that the 2002 fire grew was amazing. Most of that was due to the
dryness. To give you an idea, back before the summer started there was a
rockslide in the Cimarron Canyon. The sparks generated from the rocks
started a small fire in the Canyon. To me, that says its pretty dry. The
good thing was that Philmont updated their fire plan to cope with the
danger.
I haven't seen first hand if water conditions are better or not. I can only
imagine that if it were to get better, it will only be marginaly unless El
Nino dumps a lot of something out there.
Jason
><>
Retired Ranger
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