What’s Cooking is the Forest...

[Ulu]

There has been an enormous dry season in California, and hundreds of lightning strikes due to a recent storm sparked fires across large stretches of California’s Bay Area.

People are evacuating in the face of fires, only 10% contained In many places.

I live farther inland and we are not having big fires, but we are having quite a bit of smoke blowing down from the bay. There are also fires to the east of us around the lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada.

This has been going on for a week, and every day ash & smoke is blowing high aloft over the hot bubble of air surmounting Central California. But when the air is cool in the morning it drops and it is quite hazy.

Today they must’ve had a good Sea mist coming in off the ocean, because I could smell the damp sea air, and there was a mist coming down instead of the ash.
I was hoping it would turn to rain but no such luck. Instead it is heating up and I am seeing a lot of smoke and ash aloft, blowing over us into the High Sierra.

 

[esoxlucius]

There has been an enormous dry season in California, and hundreds of lightning strikes due to a recent storm sparked fires across large stretches of California’s Bay Area.

People are evacuating in the face of fires, only 10% contained In many places.

I live farther inland and we are not having big fires, but we are having quite a bit of smoke blowing down from the bay. There are also fires to the east of us around the lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada.

This has been going on for a week, and every day ash & smoke is blowing high aloft over the hot bubble of air surmounting Central California. But when the air is cool in the morning it drops and it is quite hazy.

Today they must’ve had a good Sea mist coming in off the ocean, because I could smell the damp sea air, and there was a mist coming down instead of the ash.
I was hoping it would turn to rain but no such luck. Instead it is heating up and I am seeing a lot of smoke and ash aloft, blowing over us into the High Sierra.

I'd take the smell of fire and the drifting haze any day of the week.....actual flames, not so much! Let's hope it keeps it's distance. Stay safe.

 

[Ulu]

We did have the slightest of sprinkles yesterday afternoon, but not the rain that would make a real difference. This is the time of year that thunderheads usually stack up over the Sierra Nevadaand we have high altitude thunderstorms.

As I may have mentioned 100 times before, I only live half a mile from the local fire house and 2 miles from the headquarters, so I hear every truck that goes off. We had at least 3 traffic accidents here yesterday and two minor fires.

But so far there has never been a major fire, flood, earthquake or other disaster here in Clovis, since I moved here in 1975. Basically, we don’t live in the forest. We live in the desert, and all the greenery here is due to irrigation, so there’s no dry timber standing.

Houses here are generally wood framed & covered in concrete stucco or masonry veneer, with concrete, clay tile or asphalt roofs. Usually any house fires start inside.

About 10 years ago the house next-door to us burned, when some kids caught it on fire, smoking. 25 years ago the house two doors from us half burned down from the same situation. Children with cigarettes & matches caught the furniture on fire.

Needless to say, I am always on the lookout for this kind of trouble.

 

[duanes]

We had fires here on Taboga back around the first of the year. When they got near the village, the Panamanian government deployed the military to put them out.


The choppers would grab a bag full of sea water from in front of my house and fly up to drop in on the fires.
Took 2 days of back and forth to get it under control.


No homes were lost, although the flames came close.
The fires started because poachers start the hills on fire to drive iguanas into nets, to make a traditional Carnavale iguana stew.

 

[robmcd]

I guess that we didn't rake the forests well enough last year...........