While looking over the precipitation charts sent to me by our unofficial weatherman, Ron Hegenderfer from Mountain Meadows Cabins, it really came as no big surprise to see how far off we are in precipitation for this time of the year.

Our last measurable rain was on Sept. 23rd, l999... that's 96 days with no rain or snow! It has been 9 years since we've had this many dry days in a row. Thanks only to a good monsoon season, we've recorded 24.38 inches of precipitation for 1999.

By comparison, just the month of December in 1997 produced 25 inches of snow! During 1998, we recorded just 7 inches, but both years had rain, the most being in 1997, with 4.21 inches.

During the past 9 years, our average annual precipitation has been 30.17 inches. 1993 was the high year at 43.90 inches, with 1996 being the low year at 20.96 inches. As a matter of fact, 1996 was the driest in the past 9 years, with 1999 coming in a close second!

Our forests are about as dry as they ever get.. let's all hope we get some moisture soon!

This dry spell has turned my thoughts back to 1990, the year of the "Dude Fire". Ron's charts start in 1991, so I don't have the statistics for that year on hand, but I do have very vivid memories of June 25, 1990...

We had just finished all of the chores at the Christopher Creek Lodge, and the time had come to sit around the firepit with friends and guests at the lodge. My husband Bob had started a roaring fire in the pit, just as he had done so many times before. It was my job to prepare the steaks, and wrap the potatoes and corn on the cob.

The pit was actually a large cast iron artifact that the owners of the lodge, Rebecca and Glenn Ashby, had hauled all the way from Rebecca's farm back in Missouri. It had been part of a furnace that used to be down in their basement, and it resembled a huge Jell-O mold. It was circular in shape with a fluted edge, measuring four feet across and about three feet high. Set deep in the ground, it was perfect for bonfires and cookouts, and quite safe because it was large enough to contain the blazes that Bob built.

I had been in the kitchen preparing salad and getting the steak platters ready when I stepped out onto the porch and noticed that ashes were falling from the sky. I glanced around and saw that a thin coating of the gray ash had begun to accumulate everywhere, and it was particularly noticeable on the cars that had been parked behind the lodge. There were ashes falling everywhere!

I was all ready to yell at Bob to calm that bonfire down, but as I approached the pit, I saw that Bob's inferno had burned down to a beautiful, red, glowing bed of coals.. just perfect for the grill and ready for me to throw the steaks on... no ashes or sparks, just glowing red coals.

The ashes falling out of the sky just didn't make sense to any of us, so we all went over to the cars to see if we could tell where they were coming from. Looking skyward, we saw that there were some clouds starting to build up to the north, which was great because we needed the rain very badly. But an odd thing started happening to the clouds... they began to turn pink, then orange, then a bright red. We all just stood there with puzzled looks on our faces until someone in the group suggested that it was the reflection of the sunset. We would learn later that it was not the sunset at all. At the time, I had my suspicions, but I had kept my thoughts to myself: it was way too early in the afternoon for a sunset. We all went back over to the "Jell-O mold", and proceeded to get on with the steaks.

A short time later, the manager of the lodge, who was also a member of the Christopher Creek Volunteer Fire Department, walked over to the lodge office for something and heard his police scanner squawking. He stopped to listen. When he came out the door to tell us what he had just heard, his face was white as a sheet.

It was a forest fire, he said, and a SERIOUS one at that! It would eventually be named the "Dude Fire" because it originated in the Dude Creek area about 10 or 12 miles northeast of Payson, just under the Mogollon Rim. It had been sighted by a Payson Airport employee.

Initially, the size was estimated to be between 5 to 10 acres. This was at about 1:30 pm. An hour later, it was still only estimated at 15 to 20 acres, not a rapidly growing fire. By 3:30, however, it had grown to over 100 acres, and had climbed up over the Rim. Within an hour, it was nearing 150 acres, and the normally gentle winds had become very erratic. At 5:30 pm, when it became obvious that the fire was now defying all efforts at containment, the decision was made to evacuate Bonita Creek Estates, a remote area of residential homes completely surrounded by National Forest with only one road in or out.

To be continued.......

The rest of the Dude Fire story will be told in several more installments. There will be stories about people that were directly affected by the fire, and photos to accompany the stories. There will be stories about a raging fire that took six lives and 28,480 acres; killed 25 elk and deer, and 30 head of cattle; destroyed 75 structures and 14 miles of range fence at a total estimated loss over $12 million, plus another $7.5 million in suppression costs. It is estimated that the volume of timber devoured by the fire exceeded 36,000 mbf, enough to build 3,300 homes! Probable cause: Lightning.

In the meantime, if any of you has a story about the Dude Fire and how it affected you personally, please eMail it to me.