Climate Change, Wildfires, and Hellish Skies

Climate change is impacting everyone regardless of where they live. Right now there are about 106-107 wildfires burning out here in the West, the largest of which is the Dixie Fire. The first picture (taken by Bettina) looks west from our patio towards the Spring Mountains (I had a heckuva time trying to find a photo without any cloud cover at all but didn't have time to sort through a million pics. This will do for now to illustrate my point). You can just discern the mountain range peeking up above the rooftops. On a cloudless day you can see those mountains quite clearly...

...taken three days ago, you can't even see a couple hundred yards distant. This is the result of those wildfires burning and we're not even close to any of them, yet we see and feel their impact!

Brrrr - Snow in Las Vegas!

It's been a windy, cold, rainy couple of days here in Vegas with more to come. Some areas got snow on the Valley floor but in our neck of the cactus, though Bettina thinks we may have had some graupel. Bettina captured these pics of the Sheep Mountain Range just to the north of us. Brrrr, I get cold just looking at these LOL Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Vegas Valley Big Sky Pics - Dust In The Wind: The Sahara Dust Storm and Mahogany Grove Fire

Unless you've been living in a bubble, you've may at least heard of the huge dust storm or cloud blowing from the Sahara and affecting nearly all of North America. While Nevada is on the far west fringe of that dust cloud we're still seeing it's effects in hazy sky's and health alerts for people with respiratory problems. BUT, as if that wasn't enough, we now have to conted with...

...The Mahogany Grove Fire! Named after the Mahogany Grove Campground up on Mount Charleston, the blaze has burned more than 5000 acres up on the mountain. We first learned of it by stickin' our head out the back door and seeing and eerie darkish sky coming from the direction of Mount Charleston. By sunset it was providing Bettina with some awesome photo ops, but later in the eveing we learned of evacuations for those living up there! For them it is not a photo op and we hope all are safe - there's enough missery in the world without having to contend with this.  Pictures by Bettina. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

****UPDATE****

Due to more accurate mapping, the fire has been downsized from 5000+ acres to 3000+ acres

5:01PM

At this point, from our vantage point it looked like a structure fire across the Valley

By 7:30PM it was clear it wasn't a structure fire

8:26PM

8:29PM

8:45PM

8:51PM

8:56PM

8:54PM

Rauch von Californien - Smoke From A Distant fire

Bettina took this photo yesterday of the smokey skies over the Las Vegas Valley caused by the Pilot Fire in Southern California. The smoke has led to an air quality advisory around Clark County. Anyone out there planning to visit Las Vegas and having respiratory problems be advised.

Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Cheap Vegas Souvenirs - Las Vegas Glitter Gulch Treasure Chest

"Glitter Gulch" is the nickname for the casino area along Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas and this cheap glitter box in the shape of a treasure chest attempts to recreate it in miniature. Like the last souvenir we posted, this was a freebie given to us by a well meaning friend. The glitter in this one 'falls' much better than in the globe featured a few days ago. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

The glitter action in this one is much better

Las Vegas Nevada Winter Photos 23 February 2015

Las Vegas, Nevada 23 February 2015,Winter Snow Sheep Mt. 

 Enjoy Photos by Bettina Berg & Fritz Berg Oma Opa :)

Las Vegas Nevada Wetter Fotos Von Heute Den 17 Dezember 2014

 Las Vegas Nevada ,17 Dezember 2014  Wetter Fotos  Bettina & Fritz Berg Opa & Oma :)