Signs of the Times, Fires, Monsoons, Lightening, and Drought
Pastor Dale Morgan
Signs of the Times, Fires, Monsoons, Lightening, and Drought*
Aug 22nd, 2007 9:13 AM
By Dana G Smith
The air was crisp this morning. Even at 5 am when the sun not being up,
the tell tale signs of a haze hung over the city. This was the season of
fires. It was just two weeks ago when the ‘red flag warning’ came out in
regards to fire in the state. Now there are other such warnings for the
state. The fires, though burning in Wyoming are not as considerable as
the ones burning in Montana and Idaho right now, with 31 large fires
burning a total of 1,137,717 acres.
According to the National Interagency Coordination Center, the
Yellowstone park fire at Columbine 1 is only two percent contained and
is currently burning 18, 255 acres. It is currently 53 miles southwest
of Cody. The Park entrance was shut down, but has been reopened
recently. It was a number of years ago when the Yellowstone region saw
extensive burnings and became the subject of movies as a result.
Other area’s burning in the Wyoming area are Granite creek at the
Bridger Teton national forest some 15 miles southeast of Jackson. It is
40 percent contained and has burned 1,477 acres. The Bighorn National
forest fire at Goose/Bone creek is at 50 percent contained is burning 15
miles southwest of Sheridan. It has burned 7,710 acres. A fire also is
burning 26 miles northwest of Dubois in the hardscrabble area of the
Bridger-Teton national forest. It is 90 percent contained and has burned
3,074 acres.
The fires have brought considerable smoke cover to areas of Gillette,
Casper, and surrounding cities. In the morning the haze causes
spectacular sunrises and a fiery red sunset at night. Along with the
fires come the problems of breathing if the haze becomes too thick.
The recent thunderstorm activity in the central part of the state has
caused rain to pour as monsoons, bringing with it lightening and
flooding. Although this has indeed brought moisture, the lightening has
spurred and been known to cause fires. For years Wyoming and the
surrounding states have face considerable drought. With winters having
been warmer than usual and the snow coverage in the mountains not as
many would want it to be.
The last years have seen dramatic reduction in the lake levels, and many
farmers have seen this lack of moisture as a threat to crop yields. In
the recent year, however, more rain this spring coupled with snow
heavier than normal has helped. Although the snow pack has not yet
reached the level it needs to be. Long range forecasts as yet do not see
any major break in this.
According to the drought forecast for the regions in Wyoming, it is
going to persist or intensify. The long range forecast models predict
warmer than normal temperatures over the western half of the area and
drier than normal conditions, especially in Wyoming.
This summer has been the first in recent memory that has also seen the
dramatic monsoon type rains which couple with extreme thunder and
lightening displays are not the usual event in Wyoming. There are times
of rain with flash floods, but this year the down pours have filled the
Platte River to almost the bank. Many parts of the area have been under
flash flood warnings. The rain comes down in sheets, runs in the
streets, flooding low lying areas. It also lasts for some time. The last
one brought a number of electrical outages, floods, and occurred over
several hours one evening.
The other first for this area is the greenery we have. This is the first
time the green pastures, fields, and Casper Mountain has retained some
green tints this late in the year. We have seen such tints last some
time, but not until August, as the heat, drought, and lack of moisture
usually brings a brittle dry golden brown color this time of year. We
are also seeing some local ponds for the first time in years actually
holding water until this late date as well. These ponds are also the
first thing that can bring on floods in such rains as they swell and the
earthen dams can break under such flash flood conditions.
+<>+BIO+<>+
Dana G Smith is the author of D-Day For America, a prophecy book of what
is coming to America. Published by Xulon Press, ISBN: 1-59781-843-7.
Dana is the editor of the W.I.B.R. online Web Sites.
He Hosts WARN Radio, "into the night", airing Fridays 9 PM Pacific on
The America Voice radio network. He also is The Watchman of W.A.R.N.
Radio Network, www.warn-usa.com.
His articles appear on his own news sites at www.wingswatchman.org,
www.ddayforamerica.com, www.warn-usa.com , and on many sites around the web.
Dana is a Watchman, "let the Watchman declare what he see's Isaiah 21:6.
He is also an investigative and research journalist who lives in the
Midwest. You can contact him through his websites or email watchman at
wingswatchman.org.