No fires in Sacramento County, but air quality sucks (not as badly as the Camp Fire a few years ago. Yet) and the sun looks red. We’re seeing ash falling here in Sacramento itself, and yeah, the air has a bit more taste and texture than normal. I don’t think the cat’s going outside for a few days. I’m betting this is harder on tiny kitty lungs than on human-size respiratory systems.
None really near us ATM in San Luis Obispo, but the smoke is brutal. We hit 100 deg today, I have no AC and my eyes are burning just sitting in my apt with the windows open.
My son in SLO says the Big Sir arson fire is filling the SLO valley w smoke today.
I’m in SLO. It was almost smoky enough today to stare at the sun. That didn’t stop us from nearly hitting triple digit temps.
Smokey orange skies this morning in the Mt. View area. I could also smell smoke last night and this morning.
Western Stanislaus County here, not far from Del Puerto Canyon Zone fire (in the hills, roughly between Lick Observatory and Patterson).
Air somewhat smokey around here but not extremely so. Some ash falling all over everything. Fuck breathing that shit. I’m wearing some kind of mask just to step out the door, which I’m actually mostly avoiding. And keeping all my doors and windows closed. Sky has been alien yucky yellow-brown for several days. Reminds me of those color photos from Mars.
Our air is hazy here in Tucson. They said some of that is smoke from California wildfires.
Stay safe.
Well, there is your problem! You live in a place that doesn’t get rain.
When I lived in CA, lightning-started fires were allowed to burn unchecked unless they were threatening structures. Is that still the case? I wouldn’t think they’d be making much effort in the remote areas of Big Basin.
I don’t know the current policy, but the SC mountains fire is large and 0% contained. Evacuations have been ordered all the way to Santa Cruz on the coast and Scotts Valley was just issued an evacuation warning.
I’m in Napa. My house is not under threat, unlike the fires two years ago, but my sister, who lives in the hills near Lake Berryessa, lost a couple rental properties and her house was very threatened but the fire jumped over it somehow.
This is the map I’ve been using: https://firemap.sdsc.edu/?fbclid=IwAR1e0xAcFRktfmn1UCq8FjAnkqqqmnrL-uXrueCOrtZpKimD1-17u-V-kug Click on the icon in the upper right hand corner. Click on Fires and a dropdown will appear. Check Satellite Fire Detections VIIRS and Satellite Fire Detections MODIS
I understand that the fire burned the visitor center there, which is a bummer. Beautiful state park.
My garage smells like the cabins I camped in winter in Boy Scouts - full of wood smoke. No ash here yet, the winds are carrying it away from us. I’m keeping the A/C fans on all the time, and am going to replace the filters as soon as this is over.
We got rain last week, surprisingly, and thunderstorms. The lightning started a lot of the fires, so the rain hurt.
I had to go to the office yesterday afternoon. When I came back out my car was covered in little flakes of ash, which really stands out against a black convertible top.
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve shared it with a few folks. Despite the intense smoke and ash, it looks like we’re well clear, which is good to know.
It looks like my former home in Boulder Creek was in the burn area. No way to know yet if it’s still there. I loved living up there in the redwoods. This is very sad.
It looks like hundreds of structures have burned, if not thousands. I imagine the fire fighters were completely overwhelmed. They had 500 Cal-Fire folks, plus a volunteer fire force. No air assist due to the smoke and winds.
As of just a few minutes ago, the air is yellow (sun angle plus crud in the air) and reeks of smoke, with some texture. So far as I know, there are no fires within 25 miles of Sacramento.
There are several communities in there, and it’s starting to reach far enough north that it’ll hit some pretty high class areas, as well as prime commute routes.
One reason the evacuation orders are being issued out in front of the fire is that there are relatively few roads into some of these areas, and even places like Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz are running the risk of getting cut off in multiple directions.
How long ago was that? The thing is that there are structures nearly everywhere now - previously wild areas have become suburban, even close to Big Basin. The housing crunch and all that. A fire burning out in a wilderness area is going to be monitored and not actively fought so much, but this thunder/lightening storm was a direct hit near densely populated areas with lots of dry vegetation.
SLO has the worst air quality in the country, today.
I’ve been congested and had a mild sore throat all day today. I’m attributing that to the smokey air.