π
2026-09-04 01:01
in Bm, Public
I'm not a sugar cookie, I don't mind heat, I biked over 150 miles mostly in the sun during BM 2022 which had record heat. I don't mind the occasional dust storm as long as it's not severe enough to destroy art, I've actually biked across the playa to my destination in dust storms severe enough that I couldn't see what was in front of me, but navigated with my aviation GPS in zero viz.
But when it's rain that turns the playa into a huge sticky mess, then I care. At this point not only you can't bike, but you can barely walk and when the mud eventually dries, it's filled with deep grooves that makes biking on it extremely unpleasant. Similarly, I of course care if the weather shuts down burning man events I was hoping to attend, and generally ruins carefully planned things that took countless time and money to organize. Needless to say 2023 was the worst mess ever, but 2025 also had multiple days of rain and while I was very close to being able to attend 2026, it had 2 days of heavy dust storms and then another day of rain that ruined the playa surface, even after it dried. Sure, the burn happened, but what is supposed to be a week long event became 2 days, at best (friday evening to sunday, or monday if you stay for the temple burn).
So basically now that weather has worsened every year with climate change, that location has become more cursed and it's more and more a of a gamble in huge amount of times and money to contribute and attend, just to have it possibly partially or mostly ruined by weather.
Part of me wonders how much longer art car builders and art builders will put up with this given the amount of time and money they invest in this for our enjoyment if it gets more damaged or hard to enjoy year to year :-
In the meantime, got to watch the burn from home:
But when it's rain that turns the playa into a huge sticky mess, then I care. At this point not only you can't bike, but you can barely walk and when the mud eventually dries, it's filled with deep grooves that makes biking on it extremely unpleasant. Similarly, I of course care if the weather shuts down burning man events I was hoping to attend, and generally ruins carefully planned things that took countless time and money to organize. Needless to say 2023 was the worst mess ever, but 2025 also had multiple days of rain and while I was very close to being able to attend 2026, it had 2 days of heavy dust storms and then another day of rain that ruined the playa surface, even after it dried. Sure, the burn happened, but what is supposed to be a week long event became 2 days, at best (friday evening to sunday, or monday if you stay for the temple burn).
So basically now that weather has worsened every year with climate change, that location has become more cursed and it's more and more a of a gamble in huge amount of times and money to contribute and attend, just to have it possibly partially or mostly ruined by weather.
Part of me wonders how much longer art car builders and art builders will put up with this given the amount of time and money they invest in this for our enjoyment if it gets more damaged or hard to enjoy year to year :-
In the meantime, got to watch the burn from home:
See more images for Burning Man 2026, Worsening Weather and Almost Made it