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Weather and Gardening Discussion

Some half decent shots of lightning from Sunday’s storm.

Also, first prolonged stretch of 30+ coming starting Monday, possibly even Sunday. Duration 6 to 10 days depending on how it goes.

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Supposed to hit 35 today, probably the hottest day of the year! Stoked to sleep in my basement tonight! lol. Might get an epic thunderstorm out of it, heat like this puts a lot of energy into a storm.
 
Video of the destruction in Jasper.

This can happen to every town in a pine forest, Banff and Canmore should be on very high alert and start cutting down trees immediately.
Jasper has a large amount of pine beetle kill compared to the Banff area, making it way more susceptiple to fire. That being said, pro-active actions to remove dead trees, thin the underbrush and clear fire breaks would be good ideas. I live part-time in the mountains east of Salt Lake. The state government is very agressive in removing dead trees and debris to reduce potential fuel.
 
There have been projects around Banff in the last few years to reduce fire risk to the town, including creating a couple of fire breaks.

I remember a controlled burn that got a bit out of hand, maybe last summer? This obviously needs to be a priority for mountain towns. Even the City of Calgary should be mindful there are some forested areas within the city that could be dangerous if they every caught fire.
 
This is the most pleasant day we’ve had in what seems like ages. 17 at 9 am, heading to 23 later. Nice breeze too, at least here in the SE industrial area.
 
There have been projects around Banff in the last few years to reduce fire risk to the town, including creating a couple of fire breaks.

There is smoke around Canmore every time I drive through to go snowboarding, so they are burning as much as they can in the winter. Pretty good strategy, avoids problems like the controlled burn CalgaryTiger mentioned.
 
Controlled burns in late winter / early spring are the traditional indigenous practice that would have been used strategically for thousands of years before a variety of bans and restrictions reduced its use in Canada. Seems like there's a recent renaissance for this particular management practice. I think the problem is that some areas got so bad (i.e Jasper) due to pine beetle infestations that it would have been impossible to do controlled burns safely.

Hopefully the next iteration of Jasper townsite and the surrounding management areas will include more consideration for not letting it get this bad again.
 

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