Bosque Fire

Its been a cold, dry winter and spring here in NM, typical of an El Niño stormtrack this year.  On the way back from Trinity Site today, we came across evidence of just how dangerously dry things are--a large and quickly growing fire in the Bosque just north of Bernardo.  

At first it was a focused, dense plume.  Even from a mile away, the flames could be seen occasionally taller than the 50-60' cottonwood trees.  

The fire continued to spread as we watched, growing to perhaps 1/2 mile in length.  Later after we had driven farther north, it appeared as two separate columns of smoke... it had jumped the Rio Grande and was now burning on both banks.  The winds were picking up for the afternoon just as this started. 


Now, several hours later as I write this, the fire is probably still burning.