How dry is it? A brush fire is still smoldering, 10 days later

Yesterday morning I was walking around the blackened 14-acre site of a brush fire in Henniker, which is still smoldering more than 10 days after it was discovered, for a story about how dry it is … when it began to absolutely four. We were drenched in a 20-minute deluge, but at least I had it easier than photographer Geoff Forester, who had to protect his Nikon while scrambling up and down 30-degree, slippery-with-ash slopes.

There’s a newsroom joke that the way to end a drought is to write about it, and it sure felt that way. Alas, it’ll take more than just one short deluge to take us out of our abnormally dry/moderate drought conditions, as my story says.