Re: Fires in California
 

We are showing 7 inches of snow on Tuesday, assumed it was coming from the Californian direction?

Re: Fires in California
 

Where in East County are they? Are they threatened by the Valley Fire? Presume they have been evacuated?

Re: Fires in California
 

Out near Alpine area, not exactly sure of the exact location but out that direction. They were evacuated along with their animals, and currently safe. As of this morning their house was still standing but they haven't been able to go back yet, they managed to get a photo this morning though as the house appears to not been damaged, but the entire mountain behind them is burnt. (they have a friend or neighbor who is a sheriff deputy working in that area who was able to get the photo.)


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...2cb4df2b7b.jpg

Re: Fires in California
 

Screen shot of a video my stepbrother posted on FB as they were evacuating before the fire came down the mountain.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...12e2100b59.png

Re: Fires in California
 

Wishing your brother and family a safe homecoming...... where I am we have the smoke coming over but nothing more.....

Re: Fires in California
 

Dense smoke here, a sepia haze with the sun either invisible or dull red. This is not unusual as the prevailing westerly wind pushes smoke in from California fires.
The pistes at Heavenly Ski Resort are oddly white today as though opened up early. Ash I guess. Which got me to wondering about skiing on ash, and a google shows this is a thing. But probably more likely to catch an edge in ash vs snow.

Re: Fires in California
 

It seems like the American west in general, and California in particular, is becoming more and more challenging to live in due to climate change. Although fire is a naturally occurring process in the west, this is the fourth year of unusually horrendous fires in California. And we're not even at the peak of fire season yet. That used to be October (think the Oakland fire, for example) but now November is the worst.

Re: Fires in California
 

It certainly is, further north we are seeing less rain in BC, and warmer drier summers, but expected to become more mild, almost seems we are slowing turning into what central and northern California climate generally was. Some native forest trees are dying due to drier warmer summers and lack of rain, and pine species in the interior are being decimated by pine beetles because its not getting cold enough in winter anymore to keep the population in check.

They have test areas where they are growing pine species native to California, but not seen in this part of the world for several thousand years but the climate is changing to where native trees can't adapt fast enough, so the plan seems to be to find species who can live in a warmer drier climate such as those species native to California.

Re: Fires in California
 

I drove non-stop to AZ yesterday - left at 11:20am, arrived 11:40pm. Seemed easy somehow! Anyway, it was smokey the whole way from the Bay Area to LA, and all through LA. Finally, as I headed east out of LA, some blue sky was on display. It was well over 100F, by the way. Then I got to see what may have been a new fire up ahead:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...424feaa862.png

As I got closer, I could actually see flames. This was probably a very small fire in the scheme of things, but generated a ton of smoke. It wasn't until I got to Cabazon, near Palm Springs, that the sky finally cleared. I wondered for the first time just how good the expensive cabin air filter in my car was! (I used to see that line-item on my service bill and think it was a silly gimmick, to have an air filter for the cabin air ... now I'm hoping it's effective!).

Traffic through LA was remarkably easy - as indicated by the above photo (though it was a Sunday evening in the middle of a three-day weekend!).

You can see on the map that much of CA is covered in smoke.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...aade939880.png

Edit To Add - my lungs feel a bit nasty; probably the effect of a couple of weeks of breathing in the California air. I could not resist going for a hike most days, maybe not the best of ideas. Now I'm in the cleaner air of AZ, I should be able to hike more freely - as long as I can cope with the 100+F weather! :)

Re: Fires in California
 

They really make those cabin air filters hard to get to in some models of cars as well. It's in a pain in rear end place on our car, floor of the passenger side, then up a bit, just such a weird location its not the easiest to access. I just change it myself, its like $20 for the filter, but the dealer charges like $200 to to it, so a bit of annoyance is worth the $180 savings. :rofl:

Just a basic filter though, nothing fancy, looks like an engine air filter just smaller.

I sometimes forget just how much further Nor. Cal is from Phoenix area, then your posts remind me.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...7ac7531606.jpg

Re: Fires in California
 

We are about 30-40 miles west of a fire in southern CA, and the sky is a yellow/gray, but very hot. That one was started by idiots setting off a "gender reveal" firework. What made them think it was ok to set off any sort of firework in such dry conditions? Embers from any fire can travel miles and start off another fire, so it's wise to listen to local news channels for any evacuation orders.

Re: Fires in California
 

I'm still managing 100+ miles a month. It's been challenging the last few weeks, but by using Purple Air, I've managed to pick locations with less air pollution. That didn't work on Saturday, though, and I ended up hiking 12 miles in 90F+ temperatures and increasing air pollution. Not sensible, but I guess it helped build up stamina!

Re: Fires in California
 

So it's OBVIOUSLY not good to be outside breathing in smoke. But how does it compare to someone who smokes 10, 20 cigarettes a day, I wonder? I feel like I'm 'coughing up' debris for several days after being outside, but does that mean my body is self-cleaning, or are those smoke particles forever embedded in the lungs and doing harm ...? I don't mind feeling 'chesty' for a few days, but don't want to be doing long-term harm. I also don't want to lose my 'body function', which I've built up over the last 10 years!

I religiously try to do 4-5 miles a day, which equates to about 120 miles, so I guess I'm in a similar boat.

Re: Fires in California
 

This morning was fine but now really come in, at least the front coming through tonight will take care of it.

Re: Fires in California
 

I hike every other day on average. Haven't done a 20 mile plus hike since two in April - Joseph Grant and Henry Coe, both of which have been severely burnt by the SCU fires. Going to try and escape the smoke and go to the north coast this week and hike in the Redwoods, Fern Canyon etc. A little different to the Bay Area.