The wind makes you crazy; the dead calm is worse. [View all]
In central Europe, they say that the Foehn winds can make you crazy. The Germans even have a name for it: Föhnkrankheit. I guess maybe the Santa Ana winds (which, from the perspective of atmospheric physics, are the same as the Foehn winds) make Californians crazy too.
However, what is driving me absolutely nuts are the diurnal winds of the last few days here in the Idaho panhandle. It blows like stink from sundown to sunrise, usually from the east-northeast. I mean 10-15, gusting 20!
I get up before sunrise and think, ah .. this is going to be a fine day. A cooling breeze and no swarms of flying ants. Then the sun cracks the horizon; the wind goes dead calm. And the lookout tower becomes like the “painted ship upon a painted ocean” of the Ancient Mariner.
Today was the worst. It got hotter and hotter. By early afternoon it was, by far, the hottest day I have ever spent in a fire lookout. And I worked three fire seasons in south Arizona’s Lemmon Rock lookout.
There was not a hint of a breeze. Then, around 4 pm, the sun dropped to the point that it again flooded into the lookout. The greenhouse effect kicked in and drove the inside temperature to the mid 90s.
Guess what then happened .. the (insert a Samuel L. Jackson expletive) flying ants swarmed. The tiny flying ants .. the worst kind. The yellow jackets soon followed to feed on the flying ants. A yellow jacket popped me on the hand .. don’t they know that I am a fellow hymenoptera from Georgia Tech?
Anyway .. the sun set at 7:19 pm, and the wind kicked up to 10-15, gusting 20, from the ENE. The bugs bugged out. The temperature plunged to a wonderful 80-F!
This was probably my worst day in a fire lookout since I started doing this in 2009. But the worst day in a fire lookout is better than most days anywhere else.
It’ll snow up here next week, mark my word. Then you will have to suffer me bitchin’ about the cold.
Wilderness Fire Lookout
Idaho Panhandle - Bitterroot Mountain Range
September 2, 2025
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