Playa Climate Prediction Center

[Elorrum]

With all the doom and dust predicted, with everyone hunkered down in their camps, I wonder if there will be a Burner Baby Boom next year.

Good one! We'll know in May.

[pink]

Just saw a picture posted on another board: the playa this morning.

It was frikking dusty.

I don't think biking will be too bad if there is hard playa under all that dust. I didn't have a problem biking until 2008-the dust was a foot thick in places. In most places. It was like biking on sand dunes. But that was after years of drought. Better to have a bike and not use it than want a bike and not have it.

[Eric]

With all the doom and dust predicted, with everyone hunkered down in their camps, I wonder if there will be a Burner Baby Boom next year.

I may not get a guy pregnant, but it won't be for lack of trying...

[Joshua!]

Be prepared! Stop by 3:30 & Foxglove for a condom at the Take a stand on children sign. That'll help with that baby boom!

J!

[captain mcguiver]

Seriously, at some point doesn't an amount of the dust blow away? Isn't there a point where there is no loose dust left??

[ygmir]

Seriously, at some point doesn't an amount of the dust blow away? Isn't there a point where there is no loose dust left??

yes

[lucky420]

Isn't there a point where there is no loose dust left??

Yes, when you reach China

[Rice]

Seriously, at some point doesn't an amount of the dust blow away? Isn't there a point where there is no loose dust left??

The wind does not only blow one direction. So what blows away right now probably will blow back in a few hours.

The only time that there is not dust blowing around is when the playa is wet, or just freshly dry after being wet.

Not this year.

[theCryptofishist]

Some of what make a playa a playa, is that it is the center of a depression. There is no place for the water to flow out. The bowly shape that holds the water in, also holds the dust it. And they deposition layer of dust is apparently very, very deep. So, even if some of it blows out, it's not enough to make a difference when you think of the tons and tons and tonnes and metric fucktons left behind.

And that's why you can see mountains in every direction from the playa...

[Canoe]

Seriously, at some point doesn't an amount of the dust blow away? Isn't there a point where there is no loose dust left??

yes

I thought someone was collecting it for an art project and making little sand dune serpents after BRC left?

[ygmir]

Seriously, at some point doesn't an amount of the dust blow away? Isn't there a point where there is no loose dust left??

yes

I thought someone was collecting it for an art project and making little sand dune serpents after BRC left?

jeebus!! don't say that that guy will sue you, too, for screwing up his land sailing/auto-fellatio fest.

[FIGJAM]

I've been looking at videos from 2008 paying particular attension to the ground and how the bikes were doing.

Yes everything looked dusty, but the biking did'nt seem that bad.

[pink]

I gave up after two days. Biking on open playa was impossible. I hoped the streets would become more compacted from the water trucks, but it seemed I could bike a block or so, then biff into a drift, while trying to avoid someone or something. It was more work than it was worth. From the pictures, the surface doesn't seem as bad this year; 2008 was after several years of drought. There wasnt even a crust to break through.

[RedHeaven]

Depends on where you were in the city, some streets were better than others.....Inner playa was difficult but doable, outer playa and temple area was virtually impossible. I predict this year to have its worse spots and better spots, too.

The only thing that really bums me out about the shitty bike riding is all the art in the deep playa not getting the love it deserves....

[pink]

I have an 'in' with the Purple Palace, so I've been promised a playa tour on said art car. I've never actually made it all the way to the trash fence (I always run out of water before I get there-last year I had an extra bottle I was carrying stolen out of my bike basket while at the temple), so I'm stoked to maybe, finally, have a chance to get out there.

[Foxfur]

When you replace the word 'wind' with 'wino', hilarity ensues.

[theCryptofishist]

As in "He just broke wino"?

[FeetOfClay]

The only thing that really bums me out about the shitty bike riding is all the art in the deep playa not getting the love it deserves....

If bike riding does get really tough, i plan to load up on water, stretch my legs, and just hoof it out to the deep playa. is that feasible to do daily, or will i get exhausted?

[Simon of the Playa]

read the back of your ticket.


you MIGHT die.

you might not.


thats about the best answer i can give you honey.

[MacGlenver]

I walked to the trash fence last year (after a stop for a Snicker bar at the deep playa movie theater). It's a hike, but it's not too bad (long as you have someone with you to chat). Make a right at the trash fence and go find "Get Lost" camp. They kick ass (and gave us some hot tea at 4am).

[Foxfur]

Run like the wino!

[Rice]

I walked to the trash fence last year (after a stop for a Snicker bar at the deep playa movie theater). It's a hike, but it's not too bad (long as you have someone with you to chat). Make a right at the trash fence and go find "Get Lost" camp. They kick ass (and gave us some hot tea at 4am).

Um, the trash fence goes all around the city. Your directions are a bit vague...

[DhammaSeeker]

I walked to the trash fence last year (after a stop for a Snicker bar at the deep playa movie theater). It's a hike, but it's not too bad (long as you have someone with you to chat). Make a right at the trash fence and go find "Get Lost" camp. They kick ass (and gave us some hot tea at 4am).

Um, the trash fence goes all around the city. Your directions are a bit vague...

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[MacGlenver]

I walked to the trash fence last year (after a stop for a Snicker bar at the deep playa movie theater). It's a hike, but it's not too bad (long as you have someone with you to chat). Make a right at the trash fence and go find "Get Lost" camp. They kick ass (and gave us some hot tea at 4am).

Um, the trash fence goes all around the city. Your directions are a bit vague...

Sorry, my assumption is the default direction to head for the trash fence is from 6 o'clock, pass The Man & Temple, and keep going. "Get Lost" is somewhere near 2 o'clock and Esplanade (though I think it's beyond Esplanade).

[Bob]

All we are is dustin' the wino.

[Lonesomebri]

After all the jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in red
And the wino whispers Mary

A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterday’s life
Somewhere a queen is weeping
Somewhere a king has no wife
And the wino, it cries Mary

The traffic lights they turn up blue tomorrow
And shine their emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sags downstream
‘Cause the life that lived is, is dead
And the wino screams Mary

Will the wino ever remember
The names it has blown in the past
And with his crutch, it’s old age, and it's wisdom
It whispers no, this will be the last
And the wino cries Mary

[Just_Joe]

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Maybe it's not broken and someone just forgot to wino it.

Back on topic...
We just returned from 4 days on the playa.
Highs were 98-102
Lows were 55-60
Some high clouds, intermittent smoke and haze.
The sun still rises in the east at and sets in the west between 7:30 and 8.
Winds, when present, were from the south at up to ~20mph.
On normal days, wind picks up around lunchtime and then lay down at dark.
Playa crumbles after being driven on. We didn't get too dusty, but were camping on "virgin" crust.
3 miles south in BRC it looked as you are expecting- doomy.

We arrived home yesterday before the rains arrived, but here (120 mi S), the rain was typical- afternoon, widely scattered and of short duration.
That pattern is expected to remain at least until the weekend.

[ZaphodBurner]

"Listen to the wino blow, watch the sunrise..."

2008 sucked, for Burning Man values of suck. What sucked wasn't just getting up to speed on your bike only to bog down on a long, rippling playa dune over and over again, but the fact that the fire performances were canceled, they postponed burning the man and it almost didn't happen after people sat on the playa for hours in a driving dust storm, and there was nothing anybody could do about it but not go home. Which is what a lot of people did, kicking up dust on their way out. It is what it is and there's nothing anybody can do about it, but, one thing nobody talks about is

CONTACT LENSES! THE DUST RUINS THEM. IF YOU WEAR THEM, BRING SPARE LENSES AND GLASSES. The man SUCKS when you can't see it, especially if you're in the deep playa clawing your eyes out because particles of alkali dust have buried themselves between your lens and the surface of your eye. It will ruin your burn.

I tried out some new brand in 2010 and walked around for a couple of hours thinking we were still in a dust cloud. When I took them out, I realized it was perfectly clear out. Within a couple of hours of putting in a new pair, the dust came up again and they were screwed. Awful glad I threw in my backup glasses before we left for the playa.

[ZaphodBurner]

(Update courtesy of blackrockdesert.org)

"Black Rock Playa conditions: dry. The surface is mostly firm, some dunes, heavily driven on during early July
Monday 13 August: the Lost Creek fire is contained, but still smouldering "

Okay, so, if you're looking at the playa conditions on a webcam, expect to see low-level haze from the smoke. You can see this throughout Oregon right now because of the fires in the central region.

For the next five days, there is a 20% chance of precipitation on the desert, and the forecast calls for thunderstorms and isolated showers until then.

The last time I was in a -dry- thunderstorm out there was in the Alvord, and we had static electricity sparking off our tent pole. That's some scary shit, and, you won't want to be playing on any cranes or scaffolding up there or you might burn early.

[stew]

CONTACT LENSES! THE DUST RUINS THEM. IF YOU WEAR THEM, BRING SPARE LENSES AND GLASSES. The man SUCKS when you can't see it, especially if you're in the deep playa clawing your eyes out because particles of alkali dust have buried themselves between your lens and the surface of your eye. It will ruin your burn.

I tried out some new brand in 2010 and walked around for a couple of hours thinking we were still in a dust cloud. When I took them out, I realized it was perfectly clear out. Within a couple of hours of putting in a new pair, the dust came up again and they were screwed. Awful glad I threw in my backup glasses before we left for the playa.

Interesting. I've done the burn with contacts many years and it was doable. Just put on your goggles when you see dust.