Siberian Haze in North-Central Nevada

It is often — more commonly than in the past, IMO — hazy or dusty in north-central Nevada where I routinely work and often travel, here and there across basins and over ranges. And in summer and fall (and probably much earlier this year than usual due to the abnormal Californian and western drought) the basins will often fill with thin and wispy to thick and dense smoke from wildfires. I was a little surprised though, when I noticed little wisps of what looked like smoke coming from the northwest early on the morning of April 18th.

In this view of the Owyhee Bluffs and Jake Creek Mountain, the reddish sunrise looks a little smokey to me. Photo taken 18Apr15 from Location 1.

For all photo and a few geographic locations, see the map embedded below.

In this next, closer view of the same cliff and the Midas Trough to the south (the lowlands to the right of the highest cliff), the possible smoke is harder to see, though the lower part of this sunrise photo shows the same red-orange glow as the first photo.

Mostly gratuitous sunrise photo, taken 18Apr15 photo from Location 2.

Here, below, is a similar view of the Midas Trough in denser smoke, taken from a bit farther away on the next afternoon — the first photo was from 26.5 miles, the second from 14 miles,  and this third is from 20 miles. By this time, I knew that a broad bank of smoke had moved in...but from where?

Photo taken 19Apr15 from Location 3.

I turned around (below) at the same location, impressed by how much smoke was hanging in the air between the Sonoma Range and I. That's Sonoma Peak at 9396 ft (2864 m) in the center.

Photo taken 19Apr15 from Location 3, looking southwest. It's about 16.5 miles to Sonoma Peak as the raven flies.

I'm not sure which day I found out that the relatively dense smoke was coming all the way from fires in Siberia, but I surely knew by the 20th (and probably knew on the 19th). Read a little more about smoke from the Siberian fires here, here, here, and here.

I took a few more pictures on the morning and afternoon of the 20th, then settled into a few more days of working inside, with the smoke staying about the same as you can see in my photos below. The first shot is a crudely stitched-together photo I took from Location 3, which shows the Osgood Mountains on the left (northwest) and the plateaus and cliffs north of the Midas Trough way to the right (northeast).

Photo taken 20Apr15 from Location 3, looking to the NNE. The bright light in the center is most likely a vehicle coming back from one of several (4-5) mines. It's that time of the morning!

And to get that photo stitched I had to finally figure out how to get Photostitch (Canon's program) downloaded onto this 8.1 computer. In the mean time, I had tried several free downloads and online programs, and Microsoft ICE, and none of them could do a thing with my poorly shot photos. (Surprisingly enough, I still don't own a copy of Photoshop, even though I had an early Mac version several years back, when it was a very simple and straightforward program.)

Here's another shot of the Midas Trough from that same old standby location, Location 2. This is one of the best places to stop to take photos along S.R. 789 and the Getchell Highway as far as getting out of road traffic is concerned, but there is a lot of roadside junk to shoot around, and there are always the pervasive power lines.

Photo taken 20Apr15 from Location 2. The bright light to the left is a vehicle on the Midas road, probably coming back from the mines.

On this morning, my sunrise photo shows a lot of the reddish orange glow reported in the northwest and elsewhere in the western U.S., although my photos are nowhere near as spectacular as those shown here at the Siberian Times. In fact, it seemed that the density of the smoke was wiping out the sunrise I was seeing, but maybe I was too early that day, and I didn't have time to wait for the sun to peak through.

Later on the 20th, I took this picture of Jake Creek Mountain through very dense smoke from about 14.5 miles away.

Photo take 20Apr15 from Location 4.

Below, I've stopped at my favored Location 2, at the junction of the Midas and Getchell roads, and taken one more shot looking off toward the Midas Trough. This very hazy photo was taken with the same focal length as my second photo, and not only can you just barely see the cliffs and lowlands, you can barely see the power line wire in the foreground!

Photo taken 20Apr15 from Location 2.

Off in the distance to the southeast (next photo, below), I could barely see the outlines of the Valmy Power Plant (North Valmy Generating Station), couldn't see the Shoshone Range beyond Battle Mountain some 60 miles distant, and could barely see the outline of Buffalo Mountain, which is a kind of northern splinter of the Tobin Range beyond the low eastern hills of the Edna Mountains (far right) and beyond the long flat of Pumpernickel Valley (hidden from view). In the original, pre-stitched photos, the vague outline of the Valmy power plant is clearer, and a ghostly mountain beyond the horizon down that long dirt road can be seen: Battle Mountain. Note: Wikipedia shows this mountain as the Battle Mountains or Battle Mountain Range, but the semi-circular mountain is officially known as "Battle Mountain" — see the USGS TNM 2.0 map here — and everybody in Nevada, at least those north of Tonopah, knows this. Also note, if you click through to view the topo map of Battle Mountain the mountain, you'll notice the central, highest peak, Antler Peak. Antler Peak gave name to the Nevada-famous, late Devonian to Pennsylvanian(?) Antler orogeny.

Photo taken 20Apr15 from Location 5.

Just a few miles down the road, I was impressed enough to take one more picture, this time of the Sonoma Range and Sonoma Peak from a pullout overlooking the Humboldt River near Preble. In this shot, Sonoma Peak is about 13.5 miles distant. The snow fields surrounding Sonoma Peak are harder to see in the closer shot than they were in Photo #4 from 3 miles farther away!

Photo taken 20Apr15 from Location 6.

When I left the area on the 23rd, the hazy smokiness was still in full swing, and I was getting quite tired of it. During this time, the haze was fairly dense, but a strong smoke smell was generally absent. One or two days I wondered if my eyes burned just a little, but it wasn't like last summer during the densest smoke, when it was hard to work outdoors, or even indoors without A/C. I figured that this time, because the smoke (or most of it) was coming from so far away, we were getting mostly the extreme fines, not any of the larger particles that cause breathing and eye problems (at least in me, IANAD).

When I came back less than a week later, I was welcomed by a great clearness, one that isn't seen in the northern Nevada desert that often these days, what with more wind than I'm used to anywhere but in the Mojave of southern CA. A large T-storm or Pacific front came through, and the air was fresh and clear. I drove to work, sans camera unfortunately, and thought I'd take some pictures the next day from the same spots, to show how these shots would look on a day rivaling the clearness of the 70s or 80s — but on the next day, the 30th, haze began to move back in, and I once again wondered whether it was all from the northwest (reported Oregon fires), or if it was partly or entirely from Siberia. Were the fires over there still going?

It turns out that they were, so the haze that persisted into the next week and a half, until at least May 5th or so, was at least partly from continued field burning in Siberia, China, and Korea, as noted here, here, and here. NOAA first reported — on their HMS Fire and Smoke page — about this second band of incoming smoke on April 29th, and continued reporting it through at least May 7th.

And so it goes...

View Midas Trough and Siberian Haze in a larger map.

Cliffs of the Ruby Mountains: Some Pretty Pictures

And while we're waiting an even longer time for me to get around to posting about the nappe in Lamoille Canyon, here are a few of my favorite pretty pics taken from our campsite at Camp Lamoille in late September. I can say that a bit of the nappe can be seen in a few of these photos, if you know where to look!

Cliffs (with sunset, first night) and the U-shaped valley of South Fork Lamoille Canyon about where it merges with the main part of the canyon.

Oooh! Cliffs and colors!

Oh, besides the nice colors on the cliff walls (sunset, still the first night in camp), this photo shows part of the Lamoille Canyon nappe.

Sunset colors and burning orange aspens.

Alpine glow on the cliffs behind the roof of the wood-heated lodge.

Back to a view of the U-shaped valley.

Our camp and lit-up lodge, with granitic gneiss in the core of the nappe barely visible in the dark cliffs behind the tent.

The next day, noonish: the upper part of the cliffs that were in darkness in the previous photo.

The same cliffs on the morning of the third day; orthogneiss in the core of the nappe showing in the lower left of the photo.

A red-tailed hawk soars overhead just before the downpour of the second day.

Dinner bell at the lodge.

Cliffs, clouds and chimney on the second day.

The rocks of the chimney blend in with the not-so-distant cliffs.

A dusting of snow, cliffs, and orange aspens; early morning of the third day.

The sun rises behind a hill. The shallow slope to the right of center is part of the lateral moraine of  South Fork Lamoille Canyon.

Related Posts:
Cliffs of the Ruby Mountains: More Views from the Hanging Valley Pullout
Links: Lamoille Canyon Geology
A Hanging Valley in Lamoille Canyon
Cliffs of the Ruby Mountains: Mt. Gilbert
First Trip into the Ruby Mountains of Nevada

Early Morning Smoke

The sun is about to rise through thick smoke blanketing the
southern Humboldt Range.

Here, the sun is up, and the smoke is so thick that the high part of the Humboldt Range, which would normally be visible in the distance on the left part of the photo, is completed covered by the smoke layer.

Looking off to the southwest, layers of smoke over a green field. 

A screeching hawk on a phone pole. 

Not sure exactly where this smoke, smoke so thick I could smell it most of the day even when working inside, is coming from, but I'm suspecting the Happy Camp fire complex and others in NW California, at least until I hear anything to suggest otherwise.

Note: Photos uploaded directly from my phone to the Blogger app. Blog post was then manipulated on the phone using the Chrome web interface, which is quite awkward. Final touches added on the laptop.

Sunrises through Smoke

The sun rises through a dense smoke layer above the Snowstorm Mountains, possibly near Kelly Creek Mountain, on August 12th. A northern part of the Osgood Mountains, on the east slope of peak 2506 (MSRMaps location), forms the foreground. Smoke on this morning, although from many fires, is mostly from the huge Holloway fire between Denio and McDermitt, NV, and from the Hanson fire near Paradise.
The sun doesn't quite make it through the clouds near the north side of Jake Creek Mountain on August 21st. This was a somewhat less hazy morning compared to many in the last one and a half to two months.
The sun rises over the south slope of the Owyhee Bluffs, south of Jake Creek Mountain, on August 22nd. The smoke layer is fairly dense. At this point in the month, so many fires were burning in California (and the Holloway fire was completely under control and firefighters had been demobilized from the area), that it was impossible to tell where the smoke was coming from, other than somewhere to the west. Likely candidates included the Rush fire, the Chips fire, the Pass or North Pass fire, and others.
The sun rises near the north edge of Jake Creek Mountain that same morning, August 22nd. Because of the vagaries of topography, angle of viewing, and elevation of the viewer, this is the second sunrise in one day. Sometime in July, I saw the sun rise five times over the same terrain. The air was smoky, even then, from mid-summer fires, for example the Long Draw fire north of McDermitt.

The sun rises through "the notch" in the Midas Trough, on August 23rd.

The sun rises a second time on August 23rd, at that same point on the back side, or north slope, of Jake Creek Mountain.

The Owyhee Bluffs and peak of Jake Creek Mountain are on the south (right) side of the mesa, just north of the Midas Trough. Kelly Creek Mountain is the mountain block north (left) of the lowland carved by Jake Creek, north of the rising sun (NationalMapViewer location; MSRMaps location).

A closer view of that last sunrise.

The last two mornings have been less smoky, even approaching merely hazy.

The sun is now not rising at all before I arrive at work at about 6:15 am. The sun is rising about a minute later every morning, and setting about a minute earlier, so the days are getting shorter by about two minutes every day. In south central Alaska, for comparison, the days are getting shorter by about five and a half minutes per day. The fall equinox is approaching.

Sunrise, Smoke, and Pelicans

It looked like an auspicious day for birds and photos of the sunrise as I left for work last Wednesday, so I ran back and grabbed my camera.
The Long Draw fire near McDermitt, NV, had sent smoke toward Midas the day before; last Wednesday, the second day of the fire, smoke created a bright red sunrise over the Osgood Mountains, visible from I-80 just west of Button Point. Then, because of sun angle, topography, and changes in elevation while moving eastward on the freeway, the sun appeared to set behind the high mountains.
Dense smoke lowered visibility to the north, effectively hiding the Hot Springs Range.
Coming into Emigrant Canyon, I got lucky, and the pelicans that frequent the river were closer than ever, flying right in front of the truck...and, I had my camera!
Here, one small group of the large pelican flock appears to fly straight toward the sunrise.
As the truck approached the railroad crossing at Preble, the pelicans flew upriver en masse more or less toward Valmy.
Somewhat farther up the road, the Midas Trough became barely visible through the smoke coming down from McDermitt.
The day before, much of the area north of the Owhyhee Bluffs had been completely lost in smoke. Here, the bluffs are barely visible, highlighted by the rising sun.

It was a smoky day.

More Views from the Road to Work

A few more views from the road to work: the sunrise photos are from early April, and the cloudy photos are from early May.
A flock of geese (?) over the Humboldt River, seen from the near the site of Preble in Emigrant Canyon. The south end of the Midas Trough is just coming into view below the rising sun.
I've seen smallish groups of pelicans along this part of the river, but they don't typically fly in Vs.

North edge of the Midas Trough, AKA Owyhee Bluff.

North Valmy Power Plant. The two yellowish, sunlit hills near the plant comprise Treaty Hill. The north, sloping end of Battle Mountain (the mountain) is behind and to the right of Treaty Hill; the bluish Shoshone Range defines the far horizon.
The Pettit Ranch on the east slope of the Osgood Mountains. The supposed true geographic name of this ranch (from the 1945 Osgood Mountains 15' topo) is the Hugh Bains Ranch, but I'm going with what the sign to the ranch says (and what I've known it as for quite a while). I remember driving up to this ranch a long time ago, despite no trespassing signs and barking ranch dogs. I think I was getting the key to a gate near Preble, where some drill cuttings or rock samples for the Pinson Mine had been stored.
At the time, the Pinson was most properly known as the Ogee and Pinson Mine (map from Hotz and Willden, 1964).
Now we're looking westerly, about 20 to 25 miles across Red House Flat, toward a batch of mostly unnamed hills south of the Snowstorm Mountains and the Midas Trough and north of the Sheep Creek Range.

Sixmile Hill and Roosters Comb.

All views above were from south of the turnoff to Midas, Hollister, Ivanhoe, Willow Creek, and Tuscarora on the Midas Road (see previous post).
Here's a second look at the same hills, this time from where the road splits to go to either Getchell or Twin Creeks.
This time, beyond the Roosters Comb, we can see the low spot between the mostly unnamed hills and the Sheep Creek Range, where Sheep Creek flows out toward the Humboldt River. The Izzenhood Ranch and Izzenhood Gap are tucked away behind the hills in front of the low spot.
Area covered by this post; map courtesy USGS, The National Map Viewer. To see this map more clearly and to explore the area, go here.
A zoomed in map showing Sixmile Hill, Roosters Comb, Izzenhood Gap, Sheep Creek, and the north end of the Sheep Creek Range; map courtesy of USGS, from The National Map Viewer, explore the area using this link.

Selected Reference:
Hotz, P.E. and Willden, Ronald, 1964, Geology and mineral deposits of the Osgood Mountains quadrangle, Humboldt County, Nevada: USGS Professional Paper 431, 128 p., 1:62,500.