The bad omens came early at this year’s Burning Man — the infamously wild, weeklong celebration of art , music, and unrestrained self-expression held at the end of every summer in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert — portending a particularly extra-ordinary burn.

During the first weekend of the 10-day event, when thousands of early burners were undertaking the formidable task of raising a fully functional city of roughly 80,000 citizens from a barren alkali flat in the wilderness 100 miles north of Reno, powerful gales leveled many of the city’s temporary structures, or prevented them from being built at all. When the wind finally let up on Sunday and the gates officially opened, burners began pouring into the city just as hammering rain began. The deluge repeated Monday and Tuesday, drench

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