Cozy Mysteries discussion

I used to live in Colorado Springs and know several here on these boards have lived there as well, and some currently live in Colorado.

Hoping you are all safe and that it will rain soon so you will be out of harms way.

It has been such a scary time here. Luckily I am on the other side of I-25 but the smoke has been horrible. I am heartbroken over the evacuations and the loss of property for my "neighbors" to the west. Flying W Ranch was burned down last night, it's been a fixture since 1953. Just awful.

Oh no. I remember going to the ranch for dinner and show. So sad.

I am glad you are sage Paula. I am sure it is very scary.

I'm in the south part of the Denver metro area and we've gotten some of the smoke up this way. My company has a small office in the Springs and they evacuated it this morning. Have other friends in the CS area, too, and all are safe for now as they are all in the eastern part of town. Have family up north in the vicinity of the High Park fire, too, and they had to evacuate. I hadn't heard that the Flying W Ranch burned. That's a shame. I remember going there once when we first came to CO in 1978. High Park is getting some heavy rain right now, I understand, and one of the gals in our CS office said they are getting some rain there, too. She was really happy as her husband is a CS cop and has been doing support for the firefighters. Most of the metro area here in Denver has already cancelled fireworks for the 4th. I can't see having those with everything so dry. The area where I live is surrounded by open fields. One spark and they'd all go up along with God knows how many homes.

We do need some rain badly but they are saying now if we got a decent rain, we'd have a chance of flooding because of all the trees that have burned.

We went to Flying W a few times but it was always fun to recommend it to people. They have promised to rebuild so that's good.

We are safe here in Breckenridge, but we lived in northwest CO Springs for almost 20 years before moving here, so we have good friends who have lost their homes. Heart-breaking! It's hard to focus on anything else.

A lot of people that I know at a school where I sub a lot were evacuated and so far I've heard of one who lost their home. So sad.

It is very sad. I saw where there are also two people missing.

Beth, so glad you are safe and so sorry your friends have lost their homes.

I hope they will have it under control soon.

We are getting brush fires here in Hawaii also. It affects all areas of the States. I am hoping they contain the fire soon. Have driven through Pikes Peak and Ft. Collins, so know the area from travelling.

We went through this a few years ago here in our corner of Australia, with the fire storms that raged through Victoria. So many beautiful small towns just ceased to exist. Sadly, the fires raced through too quickly to evacuate most people. We had pictures here of burned out cars in the middle of the road.

Everyone back home in the US - be safe. :)

hope everyone everywhere is getting rain so we don't get more fires. I hear the colorado fires are 90% or more contained. Hooray!!!

Yes! We've had cooler temps and rain so things are better. The fire is 98% contained, still some smoke coming from one of the peaks so they can't give it 100% yet.

Hopefully the cooler temps and rain will follow more of the US and help all the HOT people.

We've had no rain in Southern Wis in at least a month. Lots of grass fires, but luckily all small and easily contained so far. No rain in this week's forecast, either, but at least we're out of the 100-degree temps we had all last week.

Heather I know when we finally got out of the 100's (which is very unusual here) and to the low 90's, it felt like a cool wave! LOL I hope you'll get some relief soon.

So glad to hear the percentage of containment is that high!

I'm in St. Louis and we just broke a ten day run of 100+ temps. So, Yes, I know what it is like to be excited about 90 degree weather!

Paula: 90F is definitely better than 105. It was a huge relief when the temp dropped below 80 last night. I actually opened a couple windows overnight to air out my apartment and it felt soooo nice in here early this morning. I've opened them again this evening. Supposed to be back in the 90s by the weekend, so I'll enjoy the "cold" front (and being able to sleep at night) while it lasts.

Kelly: We had a five-day run of 100+, so I feel for anyone suffering longer than that. Our norm this time of year is low to mid-80s. 100+ is not what we are used to. At least you guys have had a bit of rain through your area (though I am sorry some of that has come with severe storms).

We are now 5-1/2 inches below normal (some areas more than that), and the governor has declared a state of emergency for 42 counties facing drought or extremely dry conditions. Farmers are on the verge of losing 90% of this year's crops, which will mean major price hikes across the country. Most of those 42 counties also have burn bans in place, but that doesn't stop people from being stupid. There were 20 fires last week alone--ten in one day.

And talk about extremes--while the central and southern portions of the state are facing drought, the northern part of the state has been getting entirely too much rain. Seems to be the story all over, doesn't it? Those that have rain are getting too much, those that need aren't getting any.