Still very hot

Temperatures look to cool down by the middle of the month

Morning adventure at Lynn Canyon (North Vancouver).

I have stepped “into sweltering, bone dry furnace” and inhaled the “pulverized ash.” I’ve driven through neighborhoods I recognized only for it to be unrecognizable—awed by the totality of destruction from a firestorm. I and many others also realize our forests were designed to burn for a renewed, natural, healthy forest while recognizing interface situations are challenging. That dichotomy is reality, not a disconnection from it. The neighborhoods where Kelowna lost almost 240 homes over two days are still unrecognizable from pre-August 2003. Unrecognizable because the suburbs were rebuilt (without cedar shakes on roofs). No lives were lost in that fire. The material world was rebuilt. The kids under 25 in Kelowna have no memory of this. Life went on. Other challenges now face the city. As historical as the firestorm was—it now feels like a footnote in history. Yes, this is tragic. We can appreciate the current material loss and mourn with those who mourn without ridiculous hyperbole. Hard to determine if you were serious or satirical.

A few years ago, my sister and her family had to be evacuated due to the Silver Lake fire just north of Cheney area. They live about 2 miles as the crow flies from the fire when it started. When they came back a few days later my brother in law and the kids found burnt 2x4 pieces, about the size of a piece of blocking between studs. My BIL said, I'm glad I kept the sprinklers system on when we left. It's amazing how far embers will fly with the right wind conditions.