Last night was not very restful for me. Just before I went to bed we got a call from friends who live in Jasper National Park. They told us that the whole town had just been told they must evacuate within five hours because of a forest fire. They were, of course, in a panic, and didn’t know what to do. We told them they could stay with us, but they were also taking on the responsibility of helping an incapacitated couple evacuate. We didn’t hear any thing further.
We then got Alberta’s loud and jarring, evacuation alert over our phone because we live close to the Alberta border. In a confused sort of state I went to bed, only to be awakened a couple of hours later by a thunderstorm with close lightning. The photo above shows the blue circle where our house is, and the red dots are lightning strikes. Luckily the storm was giving us some rain at the same time.
Unsettled, I went back to sleep again, but at 2:30, my cell phone erupted with a loud repeat of Alberta’s evacuation alert for Jasper, so I was awaken again. By that time our lightning storm was over, as was the rain. After another hour, I finally fell back to sleep.
Fortunately, the storm had ushered in a cool and damp weather system, which is very welcome. Yesterday, we were under three weather alerts: High temperatures (it was 99°F on Sunday), a severe Thunderstorm Warning, and a very poor air quality warning due to all of the forest fire smoke.
We still have the smoke today (the nearby forest fire that was 250 ha (620 acres) yesterday, has now grown to 500 ha. (1,240 acres), but the damp, cool weather in the forecast for the nest few days is really welcome news.
The photo below shows the dense smoke. Can you see the bridge?
You can view my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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