The ig Wobble - it just doesn't slow down

Photo wildfiretoday.com
The city of Mariposa was placed under evacuation orders for it's 20,000 residents shortly after noon Tuesday as the Detwiler Fire crept closer and continued to roar out of control as it burned towards the town from Lake McClure.
The Mariposa County Sheriff's Office called all available units back to key parts of the main town area shortly before noon to prepare residents for evacuation.
Firefighters, however, faced difficulties obtaining resources throughout the day as Cal Fire and other agencies battled at least a dozen active blazes across the state.
At noon, evacuations were ordered along Highway 49 north from Agua Fria Road to Highway 140, in the center of Mariposa, along with all feeder roads.
At least nine hotels in that area were evacuated.
Joan Balarge was one of the first to experience the effects as ash rained from the sky.
When she arrived to Mariposa Shipping Company to ship a package, she saw the shop, and nearly all other businesses on Mariposa's main street, were already closed.
"It's so darn dry now, it's really terrifying," said Balarge, who lives between Mariposa and Oakhurst on Triangle Road.
"I've lived through these very recently and every time it's just scary.
I really hope they get this under control."
But only a few short hours later, evacuations had been ordered in the Ben Hur, Agua Fria, Mount Bullion, Guadalupe Mountain, and Yaqui Gulch areas of Mariposa County as the inferno continued to spread its uncontrolled wrath towards the southeast.
Highway 49 was closed north of Mariposa at the Highway 140 junction up to Highway 132 in Coulterville.
Highway 140 was closed from that point to nine miles east of the Mariposa/Merced county border. Additional closures along both highways were put in place in all affected evacuation areas, as well as any interior roadways.
By Tuesday afternoon, the fire had claimed 19,600 acres and was 5% contained as more than 780 firefighters worked to try and control the raging blaze.
Several power outages were reported, with at least one still in effect by 7:30 p.m. in the Bear Valley area directly east of Lake McClure. Power lines that serve Yosemite National Park were also affected. Early Tuesday morning, the fire was estimated to cover 15,500 acres.
In the latest update at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, at least one structure was damaged, and another destroyed, but some Cal Fire officials estimated those numbers may rise.
The Red Cross moved an evacuation shelter from a Mariposa location to Caesar Chavez Junior High at 161 S. Plainsburg Road in Planada.
Two more shelters were set up in Oakhurst - at the Evangelical Free Church, 50443 School Road (427), and the Sierra Vista Presbyterian Church, 39696 Highway 41.

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USGS
The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that a minor earthquake of magnitude 3.6 occurred at 02:31 PM on July 18, 2017. (MDT)
The epicenter of the shock was located 9.3 mi N of W. Yellowstone, MT.This earthquake is part of an ongoing sequence of earthquakes that began on June 12, 2017 and included a magnitude 4.4 event on June 15, 2017, 9.0 mi NNE of W. Yellowstone, MT.
Today's M 3.6 earthquake was reported felt in Yellowstone National Park and in West Yellowstone, MT.
It was followed by numerous smaller earthquakes, the largest of which had magnitudes of 2.8 and 2.9.
The total number of located earthquakes in the current sequence has now exceeded 1200.
Last month The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reported that an earthquake of magnitude 4.5 occurred at 06:48 PM on June 15, 2017 (MDT).

The epicenter of the shock was located in Yellowstone National Park, eight miles north-northeast of the town of West Yellowstone, Montana.
The earthquake was reported felt in the towns of West Yellowstone and Gardiner, Montana, in Yellowstone National Park, and elsewhere in the surrounding region.
It was part of an energetic sequence of nearly 500 small to medium earthquakes in the same area that began on June 12, see map below.


The mag 4.5 earthquake was the largest earthquake to occur in Yellowstone National Park since March 30, 2014, when a magnitude 4.8 event occurred 18 miles to the east, near Norris Geyser Basin.

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Photo howldb.com

• The BBC claim 100,000 strikes of lightning bolts struck the Southwest of England last night.
  
•  A months total of rain in just a couple of hours caused a 4ft wall of water which ripped up roads in Coverack 
  
• Residents described the scene as like an "apocalypse" 
  

Incredible amounts of rain, a months total in just a couple of hours causes a 4ft wall of water which ripped up roads and damaged 50 homes after freak thunderstorms strike along with more than a thousand lightning strikes hit a sleepy Cornwall village in the UK.
Lightning storms have lashed the south-east of England, hours after a village in Cornwall was cut off by flash floods.
A yellow weather warning was put in place for London and the south east, as forecasters warned of "frequent lightning".
"Thunderstorms are moving towards the London area.
Intense rain, gusty winds, hail and frequent lightning all possible," the Met Office tweeted in the evening.
As the storm rolled in, the lightning strikes were soon trending on Twitter as users, including comedian Bill Bailey, shared dramatic images of the storm.
Earlier in the day, the severe weather had battered the south-west of the country.
Fire crews raced to the small Cornish seaside town of Coverack amid "multiple reports of flooding" as ferocious thunderstorms moved over the area.
Locals said say flash floods from "torrential downpours" in the storms had swamped homes and shops, while market stalls had been "swept away".
Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said its crews were attending "multiple flooding-related incidents" in the Coverack area. amid reports people were in "life-threatening situations" with all roads into the town, many on steep cliff inclines, deluged with water.
It was also reported that a couple in their seventies were airlifted from their home as the flash floods hit.
Residents described the scene as like an "apocalypse" and compared it to the devastation in Boscastle several years ago.
Dozens of lightning strikes were captured on camera as hail and torrential rain battered parts of the West country late on Tuesday as summer was rudely interrupted.
At Nare on the south Cornwall coast, 50mm of rain fell in an hour and there were 32 knots of gusting winds.
Reports suggested some people were trapped in flooded homes and vehicles may have been swept off the road by the torrential rain.
Wendy Davies, who lives in Coverack, said her garden was destroyed but feared many others had lost everything and described it as a scene out of a disaster movie.
Police appealed to people not to approach the area.
A Met Office spokesman said that by 7.30pm, the worst of the weather had already passed over Cornwall and moved over the Irish Sea.
Hampshire was also experiencing some heavy storms on Tuesday evening, some of which were likely to affect parts of Wales.
The spokesman said the storms would pass over quite quickly.
"In Cornwall, the steepness of the area and the hills has enhanced the impact," he added.
The Met Office issued a yellow, severe weather alert that was due to last from 4pm until just before midnight, warning there could be localised flooding.
The thundery conditions are expected to move north overnight and the weather warning transfers to large swathes of the country north of the M4 on Wednesday.
The Met Office said "Thundery showers are expected to push north across southern parts of the UK through Tuesday evening, perhaps turning more widespread towards midnight.
"Although many places won't see these showers, there is a chance of localised flooding of homes, businesses and susceptible roads."
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