This video shows the terrifyingly fast rate of spread of the wildfire north of Bastrop Park, Texas. This video has not been altered in any way—this is real time.

Good thing the FTS QD3 Quick Deploy—some of the 50 which were purchased by NIFC last year and are likely being used in Texas right now—can be completely set up and operational in less than 15 minutes, then taken down and rapidly relocated to where needed.

Tags: wildfire, Texas

Wildfires in the Arctic have been becoming more frequent in recent years. Now new research shows that these fires may be increasing the rate of global warming. Analysis of a burn scar from a large tundra fire reveals that large amounts of carbon were released.

In the late summer and autumn of 2007 the Anaktuvuk River fire, on the north slope of the Brooks Range in Alaska, burned over 1,000 square kilometres of Arctic tundra. This doubled the total burned in this region over the past 50 years. Scientists who estimated the damage from his particular fire found that this fire released around 2.1 teragrams of carbon – equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from the entire country of Barbados.
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Tags: Arctic, wildfire

Nature is pummeling the United States this year with extremes.

Unprecedented triple-digit heat and devastating drought leading to massive wildfires. Deadly tornadoes. Massive rivers overflowing. A billion-dollar blizzard. Hurricane-caused flooding. Earthquakes in parts of the country that rarely experience them.

Climate experts point to global warming, meteorologists cite the influence of the La Nina weather phenomenon or natural variability and, in the case of tornadoes hitting populated areas, many simply call the death and destruction bad luck. But given the variety and violence of both short-term weather events and longer-term effects like a Southwestern drought that has lasted years, more scientists say climate itself seems to be shifting and weather extremes will become more common. “A warmer atmosphere has more energy to power storms. We’ve loaded the dice,” says Jeff Masters, co-founder and director of meteorology for Weather Underground, Inc. “Years like 2011 may become the new normal in the United States in coming decades.” Read More...

Tags: Extreme environments

FTS just ended our fiscal year, and in every respect, it was an exceptional year for us. Despite the continuing erosion of the Canadian dollar, FTS experienced our highest level of year-over-year growth ever.

Some of the more interesting numbers that were recently tabulated were surrounding our service department, which was incredibly busy this year. Here are some interesting numbers:
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Tags: upgrade, sensors, Miscellaneous