Steerpike

We were warned to pack emergency travel gear, in case we have to evacuate in a hurry.

This is the map of the bay area; red is bad



And this is the view from my window:



This is what it is like, normally:



I went out for a hike the other night, and now regret it! (raspy breathing!).

scrubbedexpat091

Yikes. Doesn't look good.

Hopefully nature will cooperate a bit, but I know its getting into peak fire season (at least in So. California.) but can still wish for some rain and relief from it all.

What is that body of water?

Steerpike

It's a teeny, man-made lake!



Looks like SF is ground-zero for the whole west at the moment!

It cleared up tonight to the point where I felt like I could go for a short, non-strenuous walk, for about 45 mins. Hopefully I won't regret it.

BEVS

So terrible Steerpike. I hope it doesn't come to the point of evactuation but those fires look dreadful. Obvs please keep safe . Fires are very unpredictable.

I follow the condor cam a little bit here and there and was more than sad to watch the fire sweep through those redwoods and a baby condor suffer. Hopefully the small conservation effort will not be in total vain this season.

For anyone interested. The Condor Site and cam. Or google Iniko which means ' born in troubled times'

Giantaxe

Ironically the air in SF has been pretty clear the last few days. I've hiked near the coast each day and the biggest problem has been the damned fog!

The three fire complexes are almost certainly going to be the three largest fires in Californian history. And all happening concurrently. Throw in Australia's wildfires, the huge arctic fires in Russia, and others, and it is totally frustrating that Trump & co still think climate change is a hoax.

scrubbedexpat091

Thanks, I wasn't sure what it was...

markonline1

We’ve had a bad week, but it looks like we have turned the corner. The weather has cooled and the marina layer is doing its thing. I was never in danger, although at one point, the River Fire did look it was going to get a little too close for comfort. Everything is covered in ash (I rode to work Wednesday morning and got off the bike looking like a snowman). I know plenty of people that have been evacuated from both the River and Carmel fires. My work phone is connected to the Monterey PD alert system and it was going crazy the middle of last week.
The Santa Cruz Fire was brutal. It was sad to see the Big Basin state park destroyed, especially as I was there the back end of last year with my mum and sister who came out. Seeing the destruction really brings things home. As I say, we appear to be over the worst, the North still looks pretty bad. Finger crossed for anyone who is still affected.

Giantaxe

My favourite place to hike - Henry Coe State Park, east of Gilroy, is burning through. I don't see what will stop it at this point. It's such a remote area that firefighting in that scrub must be very challenging.

Steerpike

On my hike tonight (smoke has cleared enough to make it just about safe to breath again), I was noticing just how much fuel there is for fires - in the form of dead trees...













That's just a sampling of the obvious dead trees on my short hike. If there were a fire in this area, this would go up in a flash...

mrken30

I clicked on your link, today was a sad morning. Those poor chicks. Fires are so terrible, Thankfully air quality in Northern Oregon is still good, no red moons this year and no smoky smell.

Giantaxe

We've had a decade of drought and with climate change the dry season has extended at least a month from even 25 years ago. So the number of dead trees has increased drastically in that time period.

scrubbedexpat091

California being further south is probably a good window to the future for the west coast of North America.

Here in British Columbia along the coastal areas of the south, the western red cedar is dying in alarmingly numbers as our summers are getting dryer, and we are getting less rain in the winter, add in winters being warmer and warmer, which had led to massive pine beetle populations that has wiped out some 20% of BC pine forests.

There are some studies that have been ongoing though, they have planed some pine species native to central and northern California who are more drought resistant to see how they do here.

We are expected to get warmer and dryer, but seems the predictions are BC will be more like what California was/is, not sure what California's future is though, seems the trend will be less rain, and more heat for California, which may eventually force people to move northward.

Steerpike

Thanks for that Condor Cam link! I spent a lot of time watching it yesterday!

Edit To Add - what exactly happened this morning, Mr Ken? I thought the cams were live but I see activity now and it's dark, so they obviously run them on a loop at least.

Smoke seems to have fully cleared now in my area, and the fires seem to be getting under control. I went for my normal hike tonight and didn't feel bad at all. Temperature also dropped - it was a lovely 80 degrees. But the whole state (actually much of the West) is still having issues.

Steerpike

An update on the fires in CA, from this link - https://sfist.com/2020/08/31/fire-up...o-linger-over/ . Basically, things are getting better. Some snippets:

The SCU Lightning Complex fires, which continue to burn in Santa Clara, Alameda, and San Joaquin counties, reached 60-percent containment overnight. ... 20,000 structures remain under threat from the fires ... however only 40 structures have been confirmed destroyed ... The fire has now burned 383,157 acres over 12 days, making it the second-largest wildfire in state history.

The LNU Lightning Complex reached 63-percent containment as of early Monday, and it has burned a total of 375,209 acres in two primary zones across six counties, Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Solano, Yolo, and Colusa ...

The CZU Lightning Complex, which has burned 84,860 acres in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, is now 39-percent contained ... Over 1,360 structures have been confirmed destroyed in these fires ... By comparison, the LNU Complex, which was thought to be the most destructive of the three major fire complexes, has destroyed 1,209 structures as of last count, ...

And on the 'smoke map', nothing worse than red, and not much of that red. Compare to how it looked recenty (upthread) ...



I'm back out hiking again in the 'yellow' zone ...

scrubbedexpat091

My step brother and his wife bought a house in Eastern San Diego County recently, and the hills behind their house went up in flames, the fire got incredibly close to their house, but as of the last photo they received the house looks undamaged, but the backyard is damaged but looks like firefighters kept it from getting to their house.