We're barely half way through March and we've already got ourselves a ton of new fires. BLEH! The entire Denver metro is under a thick cloud of smoke and I can smell it even where I'm at.. over 60 miles away! The winds have been horrendous all day today and a control burn from last week, well, got outta control today. Here's some shots I took of the sun setting through the smoke cloud. The cloud stretched across all 4 horizons.. from east to west and from north to south.

15-25 structures (houses/barns/sheds) lost, 1 person dead. Damn.

http://bcove.me/lp4id5pq

Started by lightning?

Sue - I wish. That means rain. No, a control burn that was started on 3/22 wasn't put out 100%, and it flared up with the nasty winds we had.

That's an impressive series of photos! NPR reported on your fires this morning - a worrisome omen of things to come...

Sorry to hear it. We get controlled burns here, too. Usually, though, they stop doing them by this time of year because it's usually bone dry by late March. We were fortunate to get 18 inches of snow last week so the ground is in ideal condition for the start of rose season.

Here's wishing you two inches of slow drizzle for spring.

ooh, Steve - you definitely know the way to my heart! I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have 2 inches of slow drizzle... hell, I'll even take two TENTHs of a drizzle. We usually get about 12-18" of snow this month. We've had about 0.02" of moisture. Yes, two one-hundredths of an inch. Out of a foot or more. BLEH!

DH is home sick again today. The pollen count has been through the roof. www.pollen.com They have a scale of 0-12 with zero being, well, zero & 12 being the air is so full of pollen you can almost see it. Yesterday it was 11.6 Not sure today (haven't looked). But he's taking 3 different kinds of antihistamines so his asthma doesn't flare up. And with the smoke yesterday I almost had to take him to the ER. Thank goodness for his inhaler! That's the only thing that kept him outta the ER.

I saw at least three controlled burns going on this past weekend so it doesn't surprise me.

Looks like it's going to be Benadryl and Albuterol nights for me for quite a while.

Tabby - I understand that! Yesterday was SOOOO bad with the smoke. Smelled like a chilly winter night.. but it wasn't chilly! At least with temperature wise. Seeing that smoke drove chills down my spine though...

No smoke visible today on my way in. Don't know if it's because it just wasn't that big again (last night the winds died down thankfully) or what. I can't believe they didn't call for air support yesterday!!!

EDIT: Ok, know why they didn't have air support on Monday. The wind on my side of town was 20-30mph w/gusts in the 50s. There where the fire was it was gusting over 90mph. Yea, air support wouldn't have worked. Firefighters have found a 2nd dead body. http://news.yahoo.com/2nd-pers... damn.

DW has had monumental problems with asthma. The middle of March has typically found her going to the Urgent Care clinic for steroid shots and inhalers. This year was better. Two things helped. One was putting in a central filtration system in the house with an additional filtration system in her office. Both have HEPA filters and UV that burn up/break down organic materials. We also set the wash temperature to 135F to kill dust mites.

The second was hard, in comparison. In January she went on an Ideal Protein diet to lose weight and found that in addition to losing pounds she lost sneezes. Evidently eliminating all grains and beans (and also sugar and starchy veggies and much fat) did some good. Not sure if everyone would react the same way. Unless you are very fond of skinless chicken breast, roasted zucchini, and cabbage, the diet might seem difficult to follow. What I can say is that you don't have to feel hungry much. I lost a little weight on it, too; but I think I'm done with it even though I could stand to lose much, much more. In any case, even though it is not standard within the medical community to think that what you eat changes your allergic reactions, I have seen my allergic reactions change with diet.

I do hope everyone's allergies get better, nothing is scarier than having difficulty breathing.

Is it not possible that food allergies can be manifested by asthma-lie symptoms?

No idea. DH has asthma & horrible seasonal allergies. I don't have too bad seasonal (nothing that would be detrimental to working outside) but I do have a food allergy that's 100% psychosomatic. If I know the food I'm eating has strawberries in it I'll break out in hives. If I'm not told I'm ok. I do have severe allergies to lots of meds do I have to be careful there. But even with DH's & mine major change in diet have we seen an improvement with his asthma/allergies. He's still on his Advair & his ibuterol inhaler. Hate that we can't get the generic for it any more.. But can't cuz the generic had CFCs so now we pay $25 for a nasty tasting ibuterol that doesnt work as well.

Steve,
I had the same experience as your wife. Grains, beans, sugar and starch are my enemy! When I buckle down and keep them out of my diet, my arthritis problems almost disappear, and the weight falls off. I sleep and breathe better, too. We removed all the carpet and draperies from the house hoping to cut down on allergens. My middle daughter moved to Tempe, and she feels so much better in that climate. Wichita is so much drier than where I grew up, (Kansas City) and every time I go back there i get sick again.

Toni, I heard they have the fires in your area under control - hope it's so!

PPal - 70% contained, which is pretty good. Today's been pretty calm. I'm super worried about Sunday though. I hope they can get it under wraps 100% tomorrow because Sunday the wind's supposed to flare right back up to like last week, which means hotspots can reflare back up as well. This has been one heck of a messed up situation. The reverse 911 didn't work like it should have. People were calling 911 to report smoke & the 911 operators were actually telling them to stop callling, there's NO smoke, there's no fire. WTH! The headquarters they were calling were about 20 miles away.. how do THEY know that there's no smoke / no fire?? Especially if you actually have people looking out their front door and are LOOKING at the flames licking up the trees 500 ft from their front porch?? This has been a REALLY messed up situation...

Toni, I lived in Littleton and Englewod for a few years (a LONG time ago) and remember a truly awful, if spectacular, fire set by a careless camper. Even with controlled burns, it is too easy for it to get away from them and what can you do? Last year was terrible for fires here, too, and we lost some folk ncluding a fire fighter. Hope you get a make-up snow or rain soon.