It is so difficult to believe what passes as ‘political discourse’ in this country. I heard less absolute absurdity in college after a night of binge drinking, than in the ‘sober’ discussions taking place on ‘the media’.

The fire is a third larger today than yesterday, but still doesn’t pose a direct threat to structures. As a precaution due to road closures and the weather outlook, communities near the fire, and LANL have been evacuated. Wind direction and speed can easily make this fire jump ahead in leap and bounds.

Update: The Santa Fe New Mexican is reporting

So far, the fire has leveled an estimated 30 structures, most of them homes, in the small communities of Las Conchas and Cochiti Mesa. “They had only minutes to leave,” said Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker, who flew over the fire earlier in the day. “They had no time to pack. They lost everything.”

Information from the current Las Conchas Wildfire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 6/26/2011
• Location: Jemez Ranger District, Santa Fe National Forest; approximately 12 miles southwest of Los Alamos off NM 4 at mile marker 35, New Mexico
• Cause: Unknown – under investigation
• Size: 60,741 acres [95 miles² 246 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 0%
• Injuries to Date: 0
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 315 including 2 hotshot crews and 9 hand crews
• Equipment: 5 dozers, 13 engines
• Aircraft: 7 helicopters
• Incident Commander: Joe S. Reinar, Type I Incident Management Team

East – Crews are working to protect structures near Bandelier, as well as working to contain the fire along the Frijole Canyon.

West – Crews are building direct lines to prevent fire movement to the west.

Northeast – Crews are working to contain the fire using burnout methods to prevent the fire from spreading north of Pajarito Road and east of Highway 501.

South – North of Cochiti fire progression is being slowed by lighter fuel types. Firefighters are evaluating methods to stop the fire from spreading south.

[For the latest information click on the Fire symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Fires” for all of the posts related to wildfires on this site.]

Position: 21.4N 94.1W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [295°] near 7 mph [11 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [ 85 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 115 miles [185 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1003 mb.

Currently about 250 miles [400 km] East-Southeast of Tampico.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Barra de Nautla northward to Bahia Algondones.

This is no doubt the result of the Hurricane Hunter mission investigating what was Invest 95.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

From FIFA’s official site: it’s US 2-0 Korea DPR and Colombia 0-1 Sweden in the first round of play in Group C.

ESPN has the replay on the ‘Net.