By the way, I came back from Florida to find that the buzz around here in Ecuador is the Cotopaxi volcano, which has been grumbling and showing signs of increasing its activity for a few months now, has indeed become fully active now. Here are some cool pictures of it ...

There is a rather odd media hush up of it here, apparently with the object of not causing panic. As someone who studied volcanology on a special operative course a good while ago, I am not in agreement with that at all. It is getting to be an old volcano now, with a weakened structure, and has had a partial sector collapse on its west slope already. The probability is that weakest slope is now the north sector, which if it collapses like St. Helens (could happen tomorrow as it could happen in 500 years, but it is imminent, in geological terms), it will cause the tephra to flow into a highly populated area east of Quito, channeled between the nearby elevations of Sincholagua and Pasochoa. It is right where I live, so I only hope that if it does happen it doesn't catch me sitting of the toilet and petrify me for all eternity in that position, LOL!

Just assume a football stance when you're doing your buisiness so that if it happens, you'll look cooler.

My parents still have a jar of ash from Mt. St. Helens. The ash made it's way all the way here.

I guess that's not too surprising since the last 6 days we've had "smokey" weather because of fires in Washington State.

LOL! Good ideas, both, just so long as I am not mistaken as a species of footballer with a short tail. Okay, I admit to being sick, now. Strikeout! And Tracer, your signature motto would probably apply after a few days of general hunger among post cataclysm survivors.

Yeah, prevailing winds are funny old things, and right now are playing into the hands of "those" who are enforcing the media silence. That ash clouds are blowing west helps lull everyone into a sense of security about the north area being quite safe, thank you very much. Uhm...

Here is an interesting map ; zooming into Washington and south western Canada area shows quite clearly how what you just mentioned happens, runny. It is a cool site all in all, I really like it!

Yeah it's pretty crazy how the air currents can work. It's been hazy with smoke here pretty bad, probably only 3 miles visibility on a clear day. Not that I can tell it's actually clear, that's just what the radar says.

Maybe it's a good thing that California is all 'green n clean' since I could probably smell pyro's farts from here! I never got the whole emissions thing until I went to Pennsylvania where they burn a lot of coal, then it was pretty apparent. Ironically, I live in Alberta which often gets painted as a environmentally damaging province. Fact is though, this place is much much cleaner than any of the eastern states I've been to.

We've been a complete matchbox for several months now. Had to do a delivery across the Cascades to the eastern side (which looks more like New Mexico than it does the western side) about an hour from some of the biggest fires, and let me tell you about haze. Doesn't help that the winds occasionally double back on us and bring all that smoke to the west, and we've had some deep red sunlight at high noon thanks to it. At least on the west side here we're looking at maybe a week plus of rain starting about now. Whether or not they'll get lucky on the eastern side, I have no idea, but it's going to FINALLY dump over here.

Here's hoping the temperatures also drop by about 40°.

Celsius.

this state is too warm even in winter

Never tried myself, but I believe they are combustible... Oh, oh! Hope that hasn't anything to do with the "pyro" bit of the name (Sorry! <ducking and running>)....


Ya, pretty sure it is all relative. I suspect the environmentalist movement likes to keep everyone preoccupied about pollution levels in relation to their immediate area, regardless of whether it is already pretty "clean" in the first place. Nothing like cultivating a general guilt complex in the innocent to keep them on the straight and narrow.