I am in your area and it is downright scary. Never seen anything like this before. The sun is literally blotted out right now. No fires nearby (I hope) but just the wind piling it all up on Sacramento.
Southern Oregon is on fire now, too. Incredibly windy today; a fire started at the edge of Ashland this morning morning and promptly headed off toward Medford. I-5 is shut down, no estimate for when it might reopen.
I heard that the Lake Detroit area is burning again. Satellite imagery seems to show several large fires up and down the Cascades, but I haven’t had time to track them all down yet.
@WildaBeast @snowthx I’m not that far from you, as the crow flies. The other side of the river.
Yes, the air is rated “hazardous” and brown here too. I really hope we get through the summer soon.
On a somewhat amusing note, the announcer on the local public radio station, while reporting on the air quality, said “the best way to deal with it is to stay out of it.” I know what she meant by that was to not go outside, but my first thought was that it’s kind of hard to stay out of the air. Although low earth orbit might be the bast place to be right now.
The sun is not supposed to be red. Nor is air supposed to have taste or texture. This is getting almost as bad in the Sacramento area as it was two years ago, during the Camp Fire. I have a sulking Siamese because she is NOT allowed outside when air quality is bad (the current score must be green or yellow before she gets to go out), but oh well. This is bad enough on human lungs, I don’t even want to think about damage to tiny kitty lungs.
I’m working in Mill City this Summer and I couldn’t even get into town this morning from Lyons due to the smoke and flames, so I went back home to Corvallis. Here it’s been choked with smoke since yesterday evening.
I’m being told by an old coworker that the first place I ever worked, a Burger King in Ashland, is now rubble. Haven’t confirmed it.
I haven’t seen any damage reports yet, but I-5 & Valley View, where that Burger King is, was definitely in the direct path of today’s fire.
What is the latest news from Ashland? Is much of the city burned down, or just the outskirts? Or the surrounding hills? I have a cousin who lives there, within walking distance of downtown and that big park where they do the Shakespeare festivals.
Ashland is fine. Talent and Phoenix apparently have suffered a fair amount of damage, and folks in Medford are getting worried. Fire started at the NE edge of Ashland & went north from there.
No-filter picture from the Salem area yesterday evening. The Santiem fire east of Salem and Corvallis is awful.
@Tabco, does your job in Mill City still exist? I heard a lot of structures were lost there.
I saw that picture on Twitter. They said that was taken at noon.
Wow, just wow. That is fuckin spooky. I used to live in Eugene so not too far from where I used to live. In fact I regularly visited someone who lived out near Corvallis (Hwy 99)
I believe it. A friend in Corvallis said they needed headlights by 5:00, and that’s 40 miles from the fire.
Portland today has a little taste of smoke in the air, but nothing like Monday night when the air hit hazardous levels. Fingers crossed for everyone south of here.
The Santiam River runs through Mill City. What I’m hearing is that much of the town north of the river is badly damaged, along with some outlying structures on the edge of town. This includes a Subway and a local coffee shop.
South of the river, much (if not all) of the town is still intact. The particular buildings I’m working on all still seem to be OK, with their newly installed smoke alarms bleating incessantly.
What color is the sky where you live?
Here, it’s orange and dark, at 8:30 in the morning. They are saying most of the smoke and ash is actually above the city so we’re not breathing (not the case in all areas) but you can smell it if you go outside.
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/photos-smokey-air-casts-eerie-orange-shade-over-bay-area/
It’s 8:35 am here in Napa. It’s still dark and getting darker. The wind changed yesterday afternoon and blew in a bunch of smoke, turning the air yellow. Today it’s dark orange out. I can’t see the sun. It’s actually frightening.
Roderick Femm the ninja strikes again!
I’ve never been a ninja before!
This is truly spooky, like that Twilight Zone episode where the sun never comes up. You can’t even see where the sun is, or any light except this sort of orange diffusion exuding from nowhere.
Glad to hear your buildings are OK so far. Rosie’s Mountain Coffee was a stop for me if I took the Santiam Pass to Bend/Sunriver, and I’m really sorry it was lost.
This is heartbreaking to see. I left my heart on the West Coast when I moved away from there 6 years ago now and would love to return at some point.
Looking out my window in the Bay Area (East Bay) at 9:00 AM, and it looks exactly like the photos in that KRON link. Smoke + fog + sunrise = orangeish gray glow.
We’re apparently living in Mordor now, where the very air is a poisonous fume.