Smoke Time-Lapse

The air quality is bad again today. But check out the astonishing (and, in its way, beautiful) time-lapse image in this article. (You have to scroll down.) Wow. I live straight above the "w" in "New York" on that map, about halfway up New York State, so, as you can see, we're right in the path. Normally, the air quality where I live is unusually good.

But consider that amazing time-lapse map for a sec. To think, Europeans were migrating across the North American continent in wooden wagons pulled by oxen as recently as a hundred and forty years ago; ruts from wagon wheels are still visible on some of the heavily traveled trails to this very day. And now we can make a map like that one from a satellite. The rate of change boggles the mind.

Mike

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Comments

[Philip]

CBS Sunday Morning had a story recently about David Drehle's new book about his 109-year-old neighbor - The Book of Charlie. This line caught my ear, "He was born before radio; by the end of his life he had an iPhone."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-book-of-charlie-wisdom-from-charles-white-iii-and-david-von-drehle/

[robert e]

I see what you did there, Mr. Time-Lapse!

[Daniel]

All this hoopla about smoke in the East.
Where were you all while the Central US was covered with visibility at times less than 100 yards?
The heavy smoke has a negative effect on newly sprouted crops so don't be surprised at higher prices for your food this fall.

[Most of the population lives in the east. If you draw a line from the northwestern corner of Minnesota to the southernmost point of Texas, splitting the country in half, 80% of the US population lives east of that line. --Mike]

[Zyni]

Yes, we can document the ending of our civilisation in exquisite detail. Sad that almost all these records will be lost when ability to keep them (power, technology to maintain storage) will be lost.

(Also almost all digitally-stored photographs!)

[KeithB]

"ruts from wagon wheels are still visible on some of the heavily traveled trails to this very day"

There is a National Historic Landmark:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Trail_Ruts

[Curt Gerston]

As a west coaster (Seattle) we’ve been living with recurring smoke storms like this for a number of years now. I’m of two minds as I see what you all are going through now in the east. I don’t wish it on anyone else…it’s awful to live through, and dangerous for many. On the other hand (and it’s clear in the coverage of the news, that is suddenly so urgent, as if NOW its a crisis), until the majority of Americans experienced this, and especially the policy makers in the east, we in the west were despairing of the lack of action to help make changes needed to address the issues, both short term and long, that will actually change anything. The first 40 years of my life, I don’t remember a single day of smoke. In the last decade, we’ve had weeks of them nearly every summer in Seattle alone, and many days as bad as the worst that NY is experiencing (not reported in the NYTImes). So, I hope your air clears quickly. I know we’re in for more smoke out here this summer…it’s inevitable. And may our policy makers get to work on this right away. Please.

[JH]

Hope you saved plenty of N95 masks from the pandemic. Out here in the West Coast, we're experienced in wildfire smoke and it ain't fun. Does produce great sunsets to photograph however.

My grandmother was born in 1897 and lived 97 years. She used to brag that she grew up riding horses in rural Tennessee and was going out riding jet airplanes across the country.

[Richard Parkin]

“Smoke from Canadian wildfires that has descended upon parts of the eastern US and Canada in a thick haze has drifted over Norway and is expected to hit southern Europe”
https://tinyurl.com/3av86pev

[Peter Barnes]

Yes, consider the amazing rate of change. And also consider what we have to do, now, before that change pushes our climate over a precipice into God knows what.

[Stéphane Bosman]

Of course, until either Einstein is proved wrong or a larger theory changes everything, the distances ensure we could not really meet, making the whole debate moot. But captivating nonetheless!