Smoke from the wildfire is covering most of the United States. There are currently at least 12 fires burning in California. One of the most deadly ones was caused by a flat tire on a trailer - sparks created when the metal rim of the wheel dragged along the asphalt caused that fire.



Sometimes we can smell the smoke, but usually it's just a haze, and the sunshine has what I refer to as a mybloggers yellow look about it. If the fires are near enough, and the wind is right sometimes we get ashes falling from the sky.

We have several fires in Colorado, but not in my area. The rest of the state is in severe drought, but our county got okay moisture last winter because we were on the edge of jet stream which was north of us. States to the north of us were dumped on with winter snows and had flooding problems during snow melting runoff season.

Lately there have been monsoon rains in most of the state - daily rain showers - and that has helped with controlling the various fires. With the rain storms comes lightning, and it is common to have fires triggered when the bolts hit the mountains. A couple of weeks ago lightning started a fire on the mountain behind our house. Fortunately, it was accessible by road, and someone saw it early on, so the fire department quickly put it out.