USA ERE Locations

All the different ways of solving the shelter problem. To be static or mobile? Roots, legs, or wheels?
white belt
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by white belt »

Steering this discussion back towards the OP, I think it's important to evaluate all of the infrastructure already available in a location because the pace of infrastructure change in the USA is so painfully slow. So most likely, whatever infrastructure they have now will be the same in 20 years with just some minor upgrades. Don't expect to move somewhere and it to all of a sudden turn into a walker/cyclist paradise, no matter how hard local groups are lobbying for it.

It's also likely that a lot of infrastructure will deteriorate, so it's important to understand the infrastructure risks to a specific area. For example, in Philadelphia the combined sewer system (a feature of many old cities), carries a lot of risk during heavy rainstorms. Sewers overflowing mean that street flooding is more common, which poses a risk since most houses have basements. It also means that the sewer system spews raw sewage into rivers during overflow events. Climate change models show that the city's rainfall will increase and the number of severe storms will become more frequent, so this is a consideration. My personal strategy to mitigate that might be to ensure I'm not living in a flood-prone area and also ensure that I have some alternate sources of clean water in case of a Jackson, MS scenario.

tylerrr
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by tylerrr »

sky wrote:
Sat Sep 17, 2022 8:35 am
80 miles northeast of Chicago
thanks

Western Red Cedar
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by Western Red Cedar »

I think the housing affordability index shows why the PNW may no longer be the best ERE location. You can certainly find inexpensive options with some creative, ERE solutions; but the increase in housing prices over the last few years has been insane. Costs have balooned in large metros, small towns, and rural/undeveloped land.

viewtopic.php?p=263052#p263052

chenda
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by chenda »

Western Red Cedar wrote:
Tue Sep 27, 2022 1:55 pm
I think the housing affordability index shows why the PNW may no longer be the best ERE location.
Why is the PNW more prone to wildfires than New England ? Is it hotter or dryer for some reason?

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unemployable
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by unemployable »

chenda wrote:
Wed Sep 28, 2022 4:24 pm
Why is the PNW more prone to wildfires than New England ? Is it hotter or dryer for some reason?
The precip is much more seasonal in the West and fire vulnerability depends strongly on snowfall from the previous winter. In Eastern forests the rain and snow is more evenly distributed throughout the year.

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Slevin
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by Slevin »

chenda wrote:
Wed Sep 28, 2022 4:24 pm
Why is the PNW more prone to wildfires than New England ? Is it hotter or dryer for some reason?
A large section of the PNW is actually desert. Basically there is a mountain range (well, its really two ranges, but can be called the Cascade - Sierra range when you want to talk about the whole thing) that seperates the "wet" part of the PNW from the desert that defines pretty much the whole western US.

Everything to the west of the Sierra Cascade range gets all the water coming in from the ocean, and then the mountains themselves act as a moisture barrier, trapping most of the moisture from moving any further inland. This is a geological feature of the Western part of the US in totality, where the Desert is continuous from the Cascade - Sierra range as a western bound up to about the middle of Kansas (This is where the Gulf of Mexico comes into play and starts bringing moisture back into the air).

So with the wildfires, the risk is exponentially higher in the dry regions of the west, but large fires that start in the mountains or in the dry parts of the country can breach into the wetter parts of the state if they have enough momentum / the correct winds, leading to a higher wildfire risk in even the wet parts of the PNW. Also, air currents will bring the smoke from the dry regions to the wet regions, meaning even if you are technically "safe' from the fires themselves, the smoke can still pose a pretty large risk to large population centers in the PNW.

theanimal
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by theanimal »

chenda wrote:
Wed Sep 28, 2022 4:24 pm
Why is the PNW more prone to wildfires than New England ? Is it hotter or dryer for some reason?
The US is divided climatically more or less in half at the 100th meridian, which goes through the middle of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas. West of this is almost all desert, outside the northern coastal areas. Very arid, throughout the year with snowpack being the main (and often sole water) supply. East of this there is plentiful rain and snow (most years) and it is a wetter climate. The book Cadillac Desert is a great read on history of human interaction with climate and water supply west of the 100th meridian since the 1800s.

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Mister Imperceptible
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by Mister Imperceptible »

Does the choice not depend on what character you are working with?

Few characters shine in any world as much as Toad shines in the Desert.

As for me, I like it wet.

chenda
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by chenda »

Thank you all.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: USA ERE Locations

Post by Western Red Cedar »

The other variable not mentioned above regarding fires in the western US is that the US Forest Service had a policy for 80+ years to eliminate all fires as quickly as possibly. Smokey the bear has become a controversial figure out here :?

Fire has been a natural part of the landscape for thousands of years and played a role in an ecologically balanced forest. Suppressing "smaller" fires has led to large fuel deposits and overgrowth in many western forests.This policy, in combination with the size and scale of national forests and public lands, and hotter/drier temperatures has led to mega fires that are much larger than historical fires.

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