Just come out of work and noticed a great pall of smoke appears to be rising from Winter Hill G/SP-010. May be best avoided if anyone was thinking of going up there tonight…
73 de Paul G4MD
Crews tackle moorland blaze near Winter Hill TV mast - Crews tackle moorland blaze near Winter Hill TV mast - BBC News
Hmmm,
Last pic looks like the peak has erupted and molten lava is rolling down through the scrub burning all in its path. Seems as likely as a bush fire in the UK.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Where there’s dry peat involved, it seems the fire is near enough subterranean, and does pop back to the surface from time to time. Makes it quite difficult to extinguish, unfortunately…
Grouse moors are managed by periodic burning of the heather, section by section, the regrowth ensures tender new shoots for the grouse to eat. Sometimes the controlled burns do get out of hand, but these fires are more likely due to careless visitors.
I remember one day during the great drought of 1976 I could see the smoke columns from four different wildfires at the same time!
We’re a long way from that stage yet but my GM colleagues are all saying that it reminds them of that time.
Ron, the silly thing is you are hearing people complain it is too hot, too sunny, their gardens are suffering etc. etc. Once this ends and the grey skies come back with the gloom and cold and rain (typical GM summer) they will be complaining it’s too cold and wet.
Me… it’s hot but I’m looking for something big to climb for the weekend. Got to make the most of good weather whilst you can.
Complaining about the weather is a Traditional Pommie Pastime!
I’m not a fan of hot weather, when its this hot I couldn’t contemplate climbing anything higher than a bar stool!
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Seems there might have been a firebug on the loose… 
Re Saddleworth, local speculation centres around some alleged trespassing Motocross riders neglecting a barbecue on Sunday night. A gamekeeper says he tried to deal with it at the time, but it’s very much still under police and fire investigation. Fire crews, army and Mountain Rescue are still working, though they have it “under control” at the moment. Community support for those dealing with it has been great and is ongoing.
HI Guys,
i met an Englishman when we were both on the Isle of Capri and he complained that he hadn’t seen rain for 3 days and all this sunshine was too much. For once i had no response.
The weather is always a safe conversation opener everywhere but this was so incomprehensible to me that words failed me.
I’ve seen grouse on King island, interesting looking bird.
We had Quail in the paddocks around my parents farm until the local council started enforcing a bylaw that said that no dry grass longer than 4 inches was allowable after Christmas. (Fire hazard). The Quail have no habitat now and are all gone along with many other small birds whose habitat had been removed by councils “cleaning up the environment”.
I had an old aunt who was something of what is now called a “Greenie”. Bit nutty i thought at the time. Now I think that people who want development all over are nutty.
Here temperatures have not moved much above 13 C which is too cold for me to do much work outside and don’t encourage me to go to a summit. On my last recent activation the temperature fell to 3 C which I was OK with but then it started snowing and I thought enough is enough.
I have two summits planned for first Friday in July and will be suitably dressed.
Enjoy the sunshine, get your vitamin D levels up - it won’t last.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Police now reporting a gorse fire in the Mournes near GI/MM-001
13C??? That is positively balmy! The mean winter max/min here is 7C/1C…
Just driven past Winter Hill on the M6 on way to a gig in Blackburn. It looks awful, with smoke coming from large parts of the hill and down to quite low levels.
That doesn’t do justice to the wind chill factor!
GM. Brrr. I think you should apply for refugee status at our embassy. Having to endure that weather is cruel and unreasonable treatment.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Form an orderly queue…
Looks like it’s still getting worse …