It hasn’t rained here since June. Things are dry.

I was running the dogs this evening at Cottonwood Elementary when I saw a huge cloud of smoke off in the distance billowing up from Ahtanum Ridge. Didn’t think much of it, maybe a hearty leaf fire. A few minutes later that plume was glowing orange at that base. A few minutes after that it was obvious that the orange was rapidly expanding, presumably surging across the parched sagebrush. Eerie to watch an enormous wildfire spring to life. Gave me the chills a little even at my safe long distance vantage.

Back at home I climbed up onto the house roof and sat for a few minutes and watched the blaze spread in the dark. A band of thicker orange creeping out, leaving networked pricks of light in its wake. The pricks reminded me of city lights viewed sleepily from the window of an airplane at 25,000 feet. Almost pretty.

Below are a couple photos from my rooftop. The fire is roughly three miles away from where I was watching. Left, unzoomed. Right, zoomed.