A tad chilly

and in the last 5 hrs today we got 28mm of rains.

That horrible fire in Alberta might finally face some cooler and damper weather over the next few days, and that could slow it down. The completely burned area is now the equivalent of all of Long Island, plus Manhatten, plus the Bronx, plus Staten Island, plus Yonkers, plus Newark, plus Elizabeth, plus Fort Lee, plus Hoboken . . .

An Alberta fire official says in some areas smoke has been so intense that it's generated lightning which started fires in new locations, a phenomenon he said he'd never seen before.

It's not the only fire going on, either. Here's a satellite pic from yesterday showing wildfire smoke over the northern Great Lakes region:

BTW, the latest wildfire summary issued about 4 hours ago still shows the Fort McMurray fire as 0% contained.

horrible news.

We got ourselves a twister about to touch down and take out the Section 8 trailer park that's east of town. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Been playing his sound openings without memoryzing entire chapters of a book.

and here i was, a few days ago, about to post of the temps here.

perspective.

Lake Mead has been in the news a lot the past few days after reaching it's lowest level ever. On Friday it was at 1074.34 feet, the lowest level recorded since the Hoover Dam was built and the reservoir was initially filled. The highest level that can be contained is about 1225 feet. If the level drops to 900 feet the lake becomes a "dead pool", from which no water can continue past the dam to continue on down the Colorado River. However, hydrologists expect some rebound in the Lake Mead level by the end of this year, enough to prevent a declaration of a crucial shortage for 2017.

Since the lake area increases as the surface elevation rises, the decrease in contained water isn't linear with surface drop. At the current level of 1074 feet the reservoir contains only 37% as much water as it does at maximum capacity.

This pic from mid-January demonstrates the low lake level pretty dramatically.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/regional/great-southern/a/31661227/snowfall-history-in-great-southern/

and our dams capacity is at 23.8%

http://www.watercorporation.com.au/water-supply-and-services/rainfall-and-dams/dam-levels

A clarification of my previous post-- the "levels" of 1225', 1074', 900', etc., refer to water surface elevation values of Lake Mead, not depths of the water as I alluded to with the (now removed) 88% comment.

Eight days ago the ore freighter Roger Blough ran aground on Gros Cap Reefs just about 2 miles away from the Phailure Ranch (would be in easy sight aside from trees). Damage appears minimal, and no evidence of any fluid releases. Yesterday they started lightering the load off on to another freighter, and a second is available if needed. Here's an article and some pics for anyone interested.

http://www.lakesuperior.com/blogs/superior-notes/around-the-circle-160603/

The red circle is the grounding location at the head of the St. Mary's River. That's the Soo over on the east side of the map.

At the very eastern end of Lake Superior-- the opening portion of the St. Mary's River (connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron).

@playchesspoorly, the phailure ranch is soon to be a monument.

(just make sure to bundle up if you visit in the winter)

3.6C here today.

Or if you swim in the summer. As of today, the water temperature at the east end of Lake Superior is up to 36°F.

 Lightering operations continue while the Roger Blough, which grounded May 27 on Gros Cap Reef and was freed ...

http://www.boatnerd.com/news/news14.htm   Daily Great Lakes and Seaway Shipping News

 That looks like a site that might interest you, CP, if you haven't already seen it.

Yeah, boatnerd is a great site, my favorite source for looking up historic info on carriers that aren't around anymore. Lots of user-submitted photos of just about any Great Lakes ship you can think of. It also has detailed histories of ownership and modifications, which can be extensive for vessels that can be fully productive for more than 50 years.

Re: the Blough, it turns out they freed it from the reef just a couple hours before my post #2999, though the Blough was kept at the same location for some time thereafter while the situation was assessed.