From: Dr. Bob Klein (drbob@troop111.org)
Date: Mon Feb 17 2003 - 19:12:26 CST
I know we've had a decades-long drought over the southwest, but your
earlier post implied it was even worse this year, which piqued my
curiosity. About the only TV I watch these days is the Weather Channel,
and I pay attention to New Mexico. What I noted is that while Philmont
appeared to get very little in November, December, and most of January,
things have (seemed to have) improved over about the past 3 weeks. [And
yes, I know that a couple of good weeks aren't a drought-buster.]
BTW, the last Ranger Cobbler I enjoyed was in 1995.
Jason A. Cotting wrote:
> 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
-------------------------------------------------------
Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe at http://usscouts.org/lists/
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
-------------------------------------------------------
Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp
List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------
As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Thu Mar 13 2003 - 10:37:48 CST