Some Relief From Wildfire Smoke

Some relief from the smoke today in Chattanooga, but several major fires continue to burn to the north of the city and three huge fires to the south.

The accompanying photograph was taken from the crest of Civil War famed Missionary Ridge looking to the west across the city and the Moccasin Bend in the Tennessee River toward Lookout Mountain. One can actually today see Lookout from the ridge. In the previous week the mountain and neighboring Signal Mountain to the north were obscured by the smoke.

Weather experts continue to say we will get no lasting relief until we have soaking rains. Only slight rain is in the next week's forecast, and no rain has fallen in our Tennessee Valley in more than a month. Rainfall is about 20 inches below normal for this time of the year.

The irony is that much of the mid-western and northern U.S. is being blanketed tonight by record snow and ice. Drenching rains are coming through Texas and across the Mississippi River and into middle Tennessee, but fading away as the front reaches East Tennessee and north Georgia.

When I was a Cub Scout more than 60 years ago our den's Den Chief, a Boy Scout of superior wisdom in the ways of the forest and of Native American lore, Perry Gaither, taught my den of 8 year olds an ancient Cherokee rain dance.

This afternoon I was out in the back yard trying to summon those old gods and the beautiful spirits of this land... summon them and their rain! I am certain the dance and song of a 70+ fat retiree, learned as a trusting 8 year old, will bring rain!

If not in this world, then in the world to come!

Keep smilin'