I don’t know how many of my fellow NDLS 2Ls are still reading my blog regularly during the summer, but those who are — especially the ones who are summering in big law firms — will probably find this article about the economics of associate salaries interesting.

The Houston Chronicle’s SciGuy muses:

The saving grace for Texas (and much of the rest of the Gulf coast) is that wind shear over the Gulf of Mexico should remain quite high during at least the next few weeks. That’s because the Jet Stream will continue its southerly course, stirring up the upper levels of the atmosphere over the Gulf.

Absent this shear, Alberto could have become a somewhat powerful hurricane as it spent more than a day over the Loop current.

An excellent point. I point everyone again to Dr. Jeff Masters’s blog post on this topic, which features a nifty map of Alberto’s path over the Loop current.

Left photo by 12 News; right photo by Thomas Vincent.

Flagstaff blogger Thomas Vincent has great firsthand coverage of the Woody Fire in Flagstaff, Arizona, including a gallery of Flickr photos that he took after his office lost power due to the fire.

More photos here, from the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, Channel 12.

Channel 12 is reporting that the fire department has “0% containment,” but a firefighter said “it’s looking pretty good” and “it’s starting to settle down.” He also said “we got lucky” with this fire, which sounds like they think the worst danger is past. I don’t know how that jives with “0% containment,” but then, I’m no wildfire expert. (I’m not even a “wildfire nerd.”)

The Hidden Hollow trailer park, the Woody Mountain Campground, and Railroad Springs 66 are still under mandatory evacuation orders. But as of yet, no structures have been lost. There were close calls, to be sure. “There were people putting out fires literally right next to houses,” according to the fireman on Channel 12.

Whatever happens tomorrow, it’s clear that the firefighters did a great job responding very quickly and preventing a disaster, at least for now. Apparently they’ve done a lot of drills to prepare for precisely this type of scenario, and today’s successful effort just goes to show that preparing for disaster can save lives and property!

P.S. According to Thomas, “the area due east of the fire had been recently cleared for new home construction, which I suspect helped in gaining early containment on the fire. If the trees in that area hadn’t been cleared, like last year at this time, I think the situation would have been far worse. ”

Also: “I suspect the fire was started by a cigarette from a passing car, but that is just my guess based on how close the fire was to the roadway.” You can see what he’s talking about in these NBC 12 photos:

UPDATE: New post here.

Ann Coulter and George Carlin will be Jay Leno’s guests tonight. Should be interesting.

UPDATE: I didn’t watch, but Texasyank did, and he liveblogged it. He says it was a “yawn festival, really.”

The local news stations are reporting some major breaking news from Flagstaff, Arizona at this hour: a significant wildfire is burning a few miles southwest of downtown Flagstaff (and less than a mile away from a large subdevelopment), moving northeast — toward the city of 52,894 people.

Winds are blowing 20 to 30 mph out of the WSW, and are expected to continue at that clip for at least a couple more hours. The winds may die down a bit overnight, but in the long run, the winds will continue to be fairly strong, and out of the same direction, for at least 24 to 36 hours. Plus, we’re in a drought, and dew points are very low. The meteorologist on NBC 12 says, “All the ingredients are in place for a very large fire.”

I-40 westbound in the vicinity of the fire has been closed, as has Old Route 66. Lots of people have been evacuated from their homes. The plume of smoke can be seen easily from downtown.

UPDATE: Here’s a map showing roughly where the fire is.

UPDATE, 6:20 PM: The feds have just dispatched a C-130 from Utah to come fight the fire.

It’s called the “Woody Wildfire.” So far, it’s burned 100-200 acres. There are 1,200 people without power because a substation burned.

Flagstaff High School is being used as an Evacuation Center. People are being told they can (and should) bring their pets.

Lowell Observatory, where the planet Pluto was discovered, is directly in the line of fire and has been evacuated.

Also, a trailer park, Hidden Hollow Mobile Home, is about to get creamed.

UPDATE, 6:37 PM: The threatened development is Railroad Springs 66. Here’s a map showing how close it is to the fire.

UPDATE 6:45 PM: The firefighters are doing a great job. Against all odds, in spite of the extremely fire-friendly weather conditions, the fire hasn’t moved much over the last couple of hours.

You can watch live coverage here.

UPDATE, 7:00 PM: Northern Arizona University is about two miles due east of the fire. Here’s a north-facing webcam at NAU. Yeah, it’s looking the wrong way, but it still looks kinda smoky on the horizon. Here’s a large-sized version of the cam view; a new image appears every time you reload it, and you can actually see the smoke moving if you reload fast enough.

More webcams here.

FINAL UPDATE: See my new post for the latest.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Atlantic hurricane seasons of the mid-2000s, when the “exceptional” is unexceptional and the “unheard of” is commonplace!

As promised, Dr. Jeff Masters today explains why the remainder of June could be an unusually busy time in the tropics:

[T]he model forecasts over the past few days from the reliable GFS, NOGAPS, and Canadian models are showing a weather pattern more typical of mid-July developing over the tropical Atlantic. This may make for a exceptionally active June. The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is forecast to be far more active and further north than usual, and the GFS model has been predicting that one or two tropical cyclones may form in the mid-Atlantic from African waves interacting with the ITCZ. This is almost unheard of in June. Wind shear over the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic is expected to be much below normal, and with sea surface temperatures 0.5 - 1.5 degrees C above normal, it would not surprise me to see two more named storms this June. One saving grace is that the subtropical jet stream is expected to stay active and relatively far south, with should act to bring hostile wind shear to any storm that might move into the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, a series of strong troughs are forecast to move across the Atlantic Ocean the remainder of the month, which should act to recurve any storm that might form there away from land.

While there is nothing threatening looking out there today, we should keep an eye on the ITCZ just off the coast of Africa south of the Cape Verde Islands, and the region just north of Panama, in the coming days.

Lest anyone assume this is a sign of things to come, Masters is careful to point out that “past history has shown that an active June in the Atlantic has no correlation with hurricane activity later in the season.” That said… my unscientific guess is that it’s probably a sign of things to come. :)

Masters also has a very interesting analysis of Alberto. Among other things, he notes that “the official NHC forecast outperformed all the [computer] models” in predicting Alberto’s track. Way to go, NHC! Masters talks about the Loop Current’s impact, too. Read the whole thing.

LOL! (Hat tip: Casey.)

The National Hurricane Center has issued its final advisory on Tropical Depression Alberto — but the season’s first tropical cyclone will live on, as an extratropical storm that may blow up into quite a gale off the Carolina coast.

Meanwhile, InstaPundit shows us the awful aftermath. Heh.

Twenty-four years ago today, this world was graced with the birth of a certain special someone who just happens to be the love of my life…

Happy Birthday, Becky!!! I look forward to celebrating a lifetime of Flag Days with you. :)

P.S. According to the Wikipedia entry for June 14, the unconditional Argentinian surrender that ended the Falklands War occurred on the day Becky was born. Heh.