4 time national champs North Dakota State Bison (Fargo) will get thumped in the next 2 hours or so & the Griz will reign Smoke Bowl victors today. Later =>1st Griz Beat Bison since 1941 ... a historic game in the Smoke Bowl Replay here: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/2618363/size/condensed/
Check the pictures in Griz stadium now (on ESPN or elsewhere) to see why this game should have been moved east to protect the lungs & other precious parts of the boys' bodies. The smoke is coming from HERE.
center of great red eye above, Smoke over Missoula 2015-08-03 @ 6:30AM from 3 weeks ago but still fairly current, maybe worse now.
Okanogan Complex Wildfire, Northeast Washington State, 302,225 acres 1 min. ago
Colville Complex, Northeast Washington State, 11,305 acres 13 min. ago
Reynolds Creek Fire, Glacier National Park, Montana, 4,850 acres, 1 min. ago
Thompson-Divide Complex, Glacier National Park, 18,893 acres, 6 min. ago
Wilderness Complex, Nez Perce Natl. Forest, Idaho, 14,900 acres, 11 min. ago
and so many more as the eyes of an indifferent nation look elsewhere all a all dither about the significant news of Rightwing Christians hacking (or not) Ashley Madison and the size of Trump's jock. ( Great Balls of Fire! )
Other than Gov. Jay Inslee who has his feet to the fire and POTUS who certainly gives a damn, what do we hear from Political "Leaders" across the nation, including the current candidate for Senate Democratic leader in the 115th Congress or President Trump/Cruz/Bush/pick-your-own-champion-here, except their Deafening Silence about those Wildfires? What do any of them say about topics of Climate Change to which the bold boys in Missoula maroon & silver are currently "adapting" while they breath pigskin as one of the smaller particulate pollutants until about mid-October or even after 1st snowfall when these fires calm down, for real (hopefully), except things such as "Oh yea, ..., that independent agency established by President Harry Truman in the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 (64 Stat. 149) ( 42 U.S.C. 1861 et seq.) May 10, 1950, should be shutdown along with all the rest of the United States federal government on or before Sept. 30th. ... And several of the State governments should also be shutdown, too ..."? Not much.
Global Fire Map (animation 3-2000 thru 6-2015)
Global distribution of fire occurrences over a 10-day period by the beginning of the week, excluding northern latitudes >58° due to satellite position view.
The fire maps show the locations of actively burning fires around the world on a monthly basis, based on observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. The colors are based on a count of the number (not size) of fires observed within a 1,000-square-kilometer area. White pixels show the high end of the count —as many as 100 fires in a 1,000-square-kilometer area per day. Yellow pixels show as many as 10 fires, orange shows as many as 5 fires, and red areas as few as 1 fire per day.
Fire Data in Google Earth
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC)
3:27 PM PT: 15 minutes left in 4th Qua ~~ ESPN commentator & (Brent Musburger??) discussed smoke & fires in stadium and in region with video of active fire fighting ~~~~~~ 12:50 left in quarter other commentator talked about what players are experiencing (It's like standing next to the campfire) for the past 2 days.
3:32 PM PT: 10:40 left to go ~ they bring up the cardio-vascular consequences of gaming in this air.
If you have access to ESPN on your computer, when this is over & they post it for replay you might want to watch. Just sayin'. This really should be a topic of vigorous national debate (federal fire policy, cuts in Dept. Ag. funding for wildfire services, lack of FY-16 budget, etc.).