It was really a microscopic amount of rain. The thunderstorm itself was nuts. Set off car alarms in my complex. We get the occasional thunderstorm here but nothing like that. The difference between lightning flash and thunder varied a lot, and randomly (between a couple of seconds and 15+ seconds), so it was clearly widespread. Went on from about 4-6am.
Yeah, when it started raining last week, I thought, “Rain in August? Maybe fire season won’t be so bad this year!”
And then it turned out to be the kind of rain that starts fires, because fuck 2020.
heh even the deserts on fire and has been for a week in a half … it was so hazy here it actually cooled it down over the weekend … and we had a 45 minute storm that helped a little bit but mostly just made a bunch of noise
its only half contained … it might take another week to finish it off local news is saying
the evac center at the fairgrounds that the article mentions is about 5 minutes from me
Cross-posting from the Gweeb.
A fire evacuation warning zone has just been advanced to about 1 mile from where I live. There are a lot of suburbs and freeway between us and it, but I’m still keeping the evacuation zone map open in a tab, and will go back and refresh it periodically.
The historic redwood log building in Big Basin Redwoods State Park has burnt, I hear. Hopefully those big ancient redwoods withstand this fire, like they have in the past.
All of the village of Boulder Creek might be history. There are just not enough firefighters to battle all these behemoths.
I’ve been looking at the maps that Jumpbass shared, it looks like downtown Boulder Creek itself might be safe. I understand that evacuation orders have gone out of UC Santa Cruz. From a different branch of the fire, my daughter’s friend was evacuated out of Gilroy yesterday.
So far the fire closest to us continues to be well mannered, and burn east away from us.
Cal Fire had this to say yesterday:
“My recommendation is that all the citizens in California be ready to go if there is a wildfire,” Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynnette Round said Wednesday. “Residents have to have their bags packed up with your nose facing out your driveway so you can leave quickly. Everybody should be ready to go, especially if you’re in a wildfire area.”
It seems a bit extreme for the entire state, but around here it makes sense. Be a good reason to drive my cars a little bit anyway.
Huh. The only fire near Gilroy is on the far side of Henry Coe, quite a ways away. Was she way up in the hills somewhere outside of town?
Maybe it was her dad’s house instead, which is Morgan Hill. I’m going to ask a few more questions because I can’t figure it out either.
OK - clarification. It’s her dad’s house and it was a “ready to go” warning, not the order to leave. It looks like the fire is the other side of the ridge, but they want to be ready if it comes over.
Got it. With the expected lightning storm this weekend/next week, I’ll certainly have my car packed and ready. Right now in Aptos I am far, far from the fires, but that could change quite quickly.
The whole region came back after Loma Prieta, and I remember what that looked like at first. It will come back again. I just hate to see it.
Did you just say storm this weekend? Well, shit.
Worth following. There can be fair amount of informed commentary/situation tracking in the comments section if you have the time to sift for it. Also useless nonsense at times, but the signal/noise ratio is better than most 
Yup.
Now neurosing about possible vulnerability in Sacramento itself.
End of the fuckin’ world. And I ain’t never read no bible. Shit!
Hey, it’s 2020. Still time for a major earthquake, a nuclear power accident, and an active volcano in Bakersfield.
Please don’t give 2020 more ideas. It already has more than enough.
My sister, who lives in Georgia, told me the new slang for “Screwing something up” is “You 2020ed it”.
Works for me. I’ve also heard the claim that “2020” is going to become a term for “crazy”.
Last image from the Bonny Doon (Santa Cruz Mtns) webcam:
http://www.alertwildfire.org/southeastbay/index.html?camera=Axis-BonnyDoon&v=81e002f
alertwildfire.org has links to other webcams all over California
California coast climate in a nutshell: virtually zero lightning. And rainfall is a perfect bell curve, peaking in Jan Feb, and practically zero between May and October. So being awakened Sunday by a spectacular thunderstorm was a rare “treat”. Hah.
My family all went camping at Big Sur Sunday- Tuesday…bailed out early as the smoke (from any of 3 nearby fires) got worse and worse. Drove home 100 miles north to the Bay Area, out of the range of that smoke but into the range if the SZU Complex smoke. Or maybe it’s LNU. Can’t tell, doesn’t matter.