Scout211 sent a link from CAL FIRE: Ready, Set, Go: Prepare for Wildfire.
So many fires. California peeps, is it getting better or worse where you are?
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
People are complicated. Love is not.
Optimism opens the door to great things.
I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.
When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.
Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
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When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.
Battle won, war still ongoing.
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
Consistently wrong since 2002
They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.
They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.
I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.
Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?
Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.
Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.
Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.
A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.
The words do not have to be perfect.
After roe, women are no longer free.
Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.
West of the Rockies
Butte County, home of Paradise (or Pleasure, as the Moron-in-Chief called it).
Red sky and ash, the barely-there community of Inskip evacuated in the high elevation pines northeast of Paradise. The fire in Oroville is partially contained.
Oh, and COVID rates are rising, so hooray.
dmbeaster
The bad fires are all in NoCal. I live in Ventura County, and I saw smoke one day when the Lake Fire in a remote area of LA County was most active, but that is it.
My daughter and other relatives live in NoCal, and it is getting hammered because of freak electrical storms that resulted in 10,000+ lightning strikes with little rain, starting hundreds of fires.
dlwchico
Chico. Air quality is shit at 185.
Scout211
The fire closest to us, the Salt Fire, is now 75% contained and was stopped at 1700 acres. There is a new fire in the foothills that started yesterday, the Moc Fire. It started at 50 acres and ballooned overnight to 2,500 acres. It’s in Tuolumne County near 120 and 49 and there are emergency evacuations and power outages for Big Oak Flat and Groveland.
Most people know that area, as 120 is one of the roads that takes you to Yosemite National Park.
The Moar You Know
We got nothing here at the bottom of the state. Think San Diego County may not have any fire at all.
It’s roasting hot and humid today, though. And the air quality is shit, but that’s more days than not here, frankly.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Here in the East Bay, the otherside of the ridge lines in fire to the East, and to the West the Santa Cruise mountains are burning but it pretty clear none of it’s going to reach the urban areas. The smoke on the other hand is much bigger issue, there was point Tuesday were I wondering if just the smoke alone would force an evacuation.
Scout211
https://www.kcra.com/article/4-killed-in-wildfires-burning-in-northern-california-counties/33662370
SFBayAreaGal
Here in the flatlands of No. San Mateo County. Smell of smoke is strong and hazy skies.
Yesterday I was able to open doors and windows because of the wind coming off the ocean. There were blue skies and fog coming over the coastal hills.
namekarB
Good web site is http://www.airnow.gov
Select “Maps & Data” for a drop down menu and select “Fiie & Smoke Map”
Lots of other information if you drill down through the layers. A real time sucker for those of us stuck inside because it is raining ash and off the chart awful air quality around Sacramento
MomSense
I saw some heartbreaking photos of Big Basin. Are there any updates on the status of the remaining Redwoods?
West of the Rockies
@dlwchico:
Me, too. Yup, it’s bad. Maybe in a post-Trump/COVID timeline, we can do a BJ meet-up. I know there are some Sacramento jackyls around, too.
namekarB
The Redwoods stretch from the central California coast for 300 miles to the Oregon border. So yeah, pretty much most of the redwoods are okay. It is only the redwoods in Santa Cruz county and specifically around Big Basin State Park. Also redwoods are fairly immune to the effects of wildfire as the flames usually travel on the ground and rarely reach the tree tops (mature trees). If the fire is raging and reaching the tops then the tree may have irreversible damage.
West of the Rockies
@namekarB:
Good news, indeed. BTW, I LOATHE climate change deniers, aka, Republicans.
Manxome Bromide
I’m in the eastern side of the SF peninsula, and the San Mateo and Santa Clara fires are both things I am keeping an eye on. At the moment, though, there are multiple mountain ranges and a lot of fully developed city between them and me.
The air quality was awful (AQI 191) for a night and a day and then completely cleared up in a little bubble of Good Air. That’s been a relief but given how rapidly the air went from Good to Awful the first time I’ve been sleeping with my windows closed, even in the heat wave with no A/C.
NoraLenderbee
San Jose. Hazy and smells like smoke. The air quality has been getting better the last couple of days. It all depends on the wind. I think the smoke here around the bay has been blown south from Napa and Sonoma. We’re going outside for an easy-paced bike ride (masked); we’ll turn around if the air gets worse. At least it isn’t 95 degrees anymore.
surfk9
Lodi here. No fires but really crappy air quality. The weather folks say that we are right on the border between horrible and really bad air quality
VeniceRiley
@The Moar You Know: I miss the pandemic lockdown air. But the traffic is still tolerable! At least until UCI and schools re-open. It’s been blissful except for the disease consequences. Saves me at least a half hour every day of sitting in traffic.
No fire in the OC that I have seen. Muggy AF tho.
WaterGirl
@surfk9: What does that chart look like?
Sucks, Really Sucks, Totally Sucks, Really Bad, Really Really Bad, Horrible?
Serious question, though posed in a silly way. Does it progress through unpleasant and then get into how bad it really is for your health?
Bishop Bag
No fires in the Bishop area, but the air quality is terrible. All the smoke from the central area and Northern California fires has migrated to the Owens Valley and the Eastern Sierra. New Covid update for Inyo County last evening…county wide 158 cases now and 9 deaths reported…
Inventor
@VeniceRiley: There’s the new “Volcano Fire” just on the eastern edge of Camp Pendelton. Not too big yet, but just started last night.
joel hanes
The fires on both sides of Silicon Valley, one in the Santa Cruz mountains to the west, and the other on the Diablo Range to the east, seem at least to have hit a pause in what was, three days ago, a terrifying rate of expansion toward urban areas.
Air quality in Santa Clara got much better 48 hours ago.
The early rapid growth of the fires seems to have been a result of maybe a hundred lightning-strike starting points combined with extreme high temperatures and extreme low humidity. The weather has moderated, and so far we’ve been blessed that we haven’t had a period of high winds.
Understand from news reports that the Diablo Range fire is still growing quickly, but mainly in nearly-unpopulated canyon country in which firefighting is very difficult.
BUT
Many wooded places I have loved have already burned. The historic core of Big Basin Park, California’s oldest State Park, is in ash, and no one knows yet how well its ancient redwoods have come through this. Many other beloved parks and campgrounds are destroyed.
CalFire is listing both fire complexes as 0% contained.
One of the effects of California’s gross failure to protect prison populations from COVID-19 is that we have essentially no available prison labor, which is normally a significant contribution to wildfire emergency efforts.
We will probably get no significant precipitation until mid-October.
One day of high winds would, IMHO, be enough to return to very rapid wildfire growth.
Jerzy Russian
@namekarB:
On a related note, the giant Sequoia trees need fire in order for their seeds to sprout. The mature trees mostly don’t give a shit about fire, or much else for that matter.
Ruckus
I live about 4-5 miles from the Ranch fire, just north of Azusa. It is, like a lot of the fires, pretty difficult terrain to fight fires in. But it seems like it is controlled to a pretty good degree but not out. It’s believed to be arson set. Air quality is not near as bad as up north. It just looks like 50 yrs ago. The temps have moderated a bit it’s expected to be 8 deg cooler than it was 3 days ago, when walking outside made it understandable what a pizza might feel like.
hotshoe
@namekarB: even when redwood crown foliage burns, the live wood in the trunk is often protected by the fire-resilient bark, and big trees can survive to regrow top and branches.
Many places you can see a living redwood with one side of its lower trunk hollowed out by burn and the other half which has intact bark still able to support nutrient supply for the top.
This is not “don’t worry, be happy” — but in the case of redwoods it’s probably not as disastrous as the flaming photos make it seem.
On the other hand, the buildings in Big Basin state park are all burned up. They can be replaced but it won’t be the same. It’s CA’s first state park, and the headquarters building was on the National Register of Historic Buildings.
For a young state with relatively little history, I’m sad when we lose a piece.
Eta about the park buildings.
lashonharangue
@joel hanes: I have a framed photo I took of the Berry Creek Falls many years ago. So sad.
surfk9
@WaterGirl: We are close enough to the foothills for the smoke to back up and hang over us. That is the case right now as it is literally smokey outside. Just to the north of us the air quality is better as there is more distance to the foothills in the Sacramento area.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@WaterGirl:
Pretty much. Have a look at this AQ map – if you hover the cursor over the AQI numbers in the key, you’ll see a brief description of what they mean. And yes, there’s good, moderate, and then many levels of suck.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Brentwood (East Bay) here. The sky is not quite as hazy as it was yesterday but still lots of smoke smell in the air. It was so bad yesterday they closed the libraries – which were only open for pick up anyway!
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I’m in the southern part of San Francisco, where it’s really smoky and the AQI is above 150 for PM2.5 (“unhealthful”). We had some respite yesterday with clear skies and good AQ, but today is going to be rough. Smoke is coming at us from several directions and has become more widespread over the entire region, so even a change in wind direction doesn’t help much.
I’ve been saying that all of 2020 could just die in a fire, but now that that’s actually coming true, I’m having second thoughts.
Scout211
https://fox40.com/news/local-news/lung-health-expert-says-masks-used-for-covid-19-not-helpful-for-smoke/
Jinchi
@WaterGirl:There are a lot of air quality index (AQI) mapping sites.
The EPA gives a broad map of the state:
https://cfpub.epa.gov/airnow/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=315
You can get more detailed views of the data at sites like the weather underground, although it takes a little practice because there are so many options (The default is temperature. In this case you want Air Quality PM 2.5).
https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap?lat=37.805&lon=-121.2
Looking at those maps you can see how variable the air quality can be. Sometimes you can travel a few miles east or west to get from horrible air quality (AQI 200+) to good air quality (AQI < 50).
Anotherlurker
@WaterGirl: Walnut Creek. here. Air smoky and overcast. AQI of 185. My eyes are itching and watering , even with the A/C on.
I delt with a severe case of Shingles, on my face, for a year and 1/2. The irritation and weeping freaks me out because they are 2 of the symptoms from from my battle with this side effect of Chicken Pox. My Dr. calls it Post Therpatic Neuralgia .
Jinchi
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: That’s the best map I’ve seen. Zooming out gives a pretty good look at the state compared to the rest of the country.
https://www.purpleair.com/map?opt=1/i/mAQI/a10/cC0#4.58/38.6/-115.77
tomtofa
Hazy skies, smoke smell in the Oakland area. 3 and 4 alarm grass fires, and a house fire or two, nearby. But not the big ones as they’re having to the north and east (yet). A couple of the open space areas I frequent with the dog are closed due to the fire danger.
Martin
Fine here in OC (other than being hot).
The concern is that things on the ground aren’t terrible except for the two large fires – Vacaville and around San Jose – but that CalFire seems to have very little confidence they can keep it that way due to the loss of most of our firefighting force (prisoners that all have covid).
It’s tomorrow and next week and next month everyone is worried about. And the compounding effects of poor air quality and covid. It’s those small fires as tomtofa is describing that normally get knocked down quickly that maybe won’t be?
I’ve always had mixed feelings about the prisoner firefighting program. It could have served as a way to give prisoners skills for a career after they’re released, but they’re prohibited from taking firefighting jobs due to a felony. Seems to me that if you can be trusted to do it during your sentence, that should go a long way to removing that restriction after. CA is getting better at that side of criminal justice, but it’s been so bad for so long that it’ll be a while before I think we can say we’re good at it.
Martin
Also, CA folks, we’ve noticed an uptick in coyote sightings in residential areas. I think it’s due to how much less traffic is out on the streets. This morning we had one in front of our not remotely rural house at 9am, and I’ve never seen a coyote that late in the morning anywhere. We have no nearby fires to be driving wildlife out of their ranges, so be aware when walking the pups.
Gin & Tonic
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Back in April, when there were uncontrolled fires around Chernobyl, my son in Kyiv reported that they had an AQI north of 500.
WaitingForMountainLife
I must be fairly close to @Scout211 because the Salt fire is the closest to me. I’m in Murphys and it’s hazy and smells like smoke here, but not too bad so far.
(I’m a long time lurker here – I was reading when Cole was a Republican).
Annie
San Francisco here. The air is hazy and we’re smelling smoke, and I live right by the ocean where there is usually a breeze. It’s not enough to clear this today. My eyes sting mildly and I’m coughing a bit. I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the Bay Area that’s much better.
I just looked At the Cal Fire site and it does seem as if some of the fires are slowly being contained.
Princess Leia
@West of the Rockies: My very elderly parents live in Magalia- survived the last fire, but I really wonder what they would do if forced to evacuate again.
SectionH
@Martin: For Bastet’s Sakes, I hope people are keeping their cats inside! And all pets, tbh. Coyotes get places even Californians sometimes don’t expect, like your neighborhood…
Since I’m here, it’s 76º with 76% humidity so far this morning. Not bad in the shade with a breeze, but I was out for about an hour earlier, and it was way too hot in the sun. No smokey smells (no fires in the county afaik), AQI was 79, is now 88. We’re damn lucky so far this season, but I know damn well how fast that can change.
WaterGirl
@Anotherlurker: I am very sorry to hear that. My dad had shingles on his face and I understand that is supposed to be one of the worst places to get it.
I very much hope that this is reaction to smoke and not a reactivation of your shingles.
The Moar You Know
@Martin: I’ve been seeing about one of them (out at 9am coyotes) every two years or so here in SD (solid suburb just like you, but next to a fairly large wildlife corridor) think the first time I saw that was back in 2006. Always big adults. The best explanation is “rabid”, which is really bad, but not as bad as if they’re starting to habituate to daylight, which would be a small catastrophe for humans but a species-ending one for the western coyote.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Bishop Bag: I was thinking of heading up that way for some astro shots, but it looks like transparency sucks big time.
Scout211
Oh no, oh no, oh no . . .
https://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=sto&wwa=fire%20weather%20watch
Scout211
And it’s everywhere . . .
Rand Careaga
My brother packed a suitcase and some photographs yesterday and left Santa Cruz an hour in advance of the mandatory evacuation order. He is now ensconced in the comfortable garret here at The Crumbling Manse™ at the edge of downtown Oakland, which is occasionally combustible, but usually not owing to wildfires. We expect he’ll be here for a week or two—much longer, of course, if his home is consumed.
WaterGirl
@Rand Careaga: Yikes. I’m glad your brother was able to get out a bit ahead of the madhouse, and also glad he had somewhere sort of close to go, and somewhere to stay if things really go south.
SectionH
@SectionH: Mr S just pointed out I didn’t ID location. Sorry. The “here” above referred to posting on Balloon Juice, but I shoulda said the weather report is from “uptown” San Diego.
Sister Golden Bear
Here in the flat of south San Mateo County (near Palo Alto) skies are bluish, but smell of smoke and air quality is officially at unhealthy levels. Judging by the AQI map at PurpleAir (excellent resource) it looks like the smoke plume is blow east across the San Jose area. In the Ben Lomond area just adjacent the fires the AQI is a mind-blowing 789.
For the NorCal fires, we’re well over 500,000 acres—the SCU Lightning Complex fire (east of San Jose) alone is bigger than the Camp Fire that destroy Paradise in 2018. You can see a map of the active fires here, and the fires themselves (not just the smoke) are visible from space.
Just got an announcement that there’s red flag fire alert through Tuesday night, with more dry lightning expected over the weekend.
TomatoQueen
Thanks California folk for checking in, please continue safe.
Bishop Bag
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I would hold off on coming up for photos at the moment. This morning you could not see the White Mountains from my house in Bishop.
Heywood J.
Glenn County, half-hour west of Chico. Air has been pretty brutal all week, varying from brown to orange to gray. The one break is that it’s dropped temps by 5-10 degrees (we were in the middle of a nasty heat wave last weekend). Nearest fire is August Complex, which is a cluster of about 35(!) fires in the Mendocino National Forest, on the other side of Black Butte Lake.
So basically they have been containing the fire by keeping it from heading east toward the towns, but over 110k acres of forest are aflame, heading west toward Mendo. We are safe for now, but it will be a long weekend. I will be going through the house making an insurance video, packing up the valuables, cleaning the pet porter, and getting ready for the next round of dry lightning on Monday. We can be out of the house and on I-5 in 10-15 minutes if it comes to that.
Whatever happened to those guys with the rakes that Dear Leader promised after Pleasure burned down?
Charlie Victory
Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin checking in. Under evacuation warning. Packed. Will probably leave in next hour or so, unless mandatory order comes in sooner.
Only one road in and out if you’re familiar w the Park. Sir Francis Drake. Fire is burnin near the only escape route so while most of us on the peninsula are not directly effected, officials want us out. Happy to oblige.
Scout211
Charlie Victory @54:
Stay safe. I hope you can return home soon.
trollhattan
Waves through the haze, Howdy!
We’re below 200 AQI now, versus nearly 300 yesterday in the Sac region, so progress. The LNU fire due west of here is over 200k acres as of this a.m. and three are dead from just that fire. There are fires galore, and this short satellite loop shows smoke covering the entire Central Valley then heading over the Sierra across southern Oregon, northern Nevada and Idaho and into Wyoming. Offshore push has made a separate area of coastal smoke extending well over the Pacific. The involved geography is mind-boggling.
It’s mid-August and these all won’t be fully out until sometime next month. Forecast for Sunday into Monday shows more thunderstorms on the way, meaning more fires to come.
Used to be that north and central California saw the end of fire season as early as late September and definitely in October. Now, it can push far into November. the 2018 Camp Fire began November 8.
Stay safe and wear that sissy liberal face mask. It’s what the smart people are doing.
Jay
Reminder to the Jackals everywhere that an ionizing air purifier, ( get a model with cleanable filters), will make your indoor air, breathable.
We have a small Honeywell, it made life liveable when the Interior burned down in 2008,2009,2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, the new normal.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Cycling past the entrance to Sacramento State U last week I came across an adult coyote trotting across the lanes just as casually as you please. “This is my place now, hooman.” Dawn and dusk, sure, buddy but this is five in the afternoon.
trollhattan
@Jay:
Have a portable HEPA filter by Rowenta that seems to do well–it’s mechanical and chemical rather than electrostatic and the replacements aren’t cheap, but who’s complaining?
WaterGirl
@Charlie Victory: Scary. Be safe. Hope you have a place to go to!
Darkrose
Currently Sacramento AQI is 78, but it’s supposed to get up to 161. The sky is yellow again today.
I’m back home. Turns out our management company wasn’t at fault; the AC capacitor just picked the worst possible time to die. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like it’s running more efficiently now. I’m very grateful to be up in my bedroom with the air purifier. The cats are very happy to have both moms back and where they belong in the house.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Bishop Bag: Yeah, there’s also this moon thing that’s becoming a problem. Probably wait until a week after the next full moon.
ETA: There’s also the fall colors coming up.
Jay
@trollhattan:
yeah, there are ducks on the sidewalk outside the local Tim Hortons, just blatantly begging,
and a couple of geese in the mall parking lot, going from car to car,……..
trollhattan
@Darkrose:
Best current info site I know is this one. Downtown is 167. Bring a spoon. :-)
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I’ve lived with decades of migraines, before any help whatsoever, now there is help. But that only gave me a little glint of what shingles is like when I got it on my face. Don’t know what it’s like anywhere else but the face is nasty, extremely nasty. And I was able to catch it somewhat early with my doc. A year and a half of that…….
laura
Concur with Trollhattan and Darkrose – chunky air, bruised sky, hot. Week before last we bought a pair of air filters and they are doing yeoman’s duty. But I have terrible fire anxiety and this week smells like the house is on fire. Not so bad during waking hours, but very troubling at night. The forecast is foreboding and we’ve just not swept the forest floors enough….
sacrablue
Laura, Darkrose and Trollhattan, the air quality sensor closest to my house is currently reading 193. The crud must be coming back down into the valley from the foothills. It isn’t as ugly as yesterday but I think it will get worse tonight.
wmd
So I bugged out on Wednesday after order came to my phone. Was able to do a return trip yesterday to rescue chicks (17 month old chickens) and my motorcycle. Highway patrol accepted that I had extenuating circumstances – getting chicks out at 10:30 PM when the order came to my phone wasn’t possible. My work badge showing I’m on Medical Emergency Response Team helped with that. My house is CZU complex fire evacuation area..
Current location had an evacuation order come to my phone over night. Due to a different fire SCU complex fire. The border of the area is 10 m from where I’m sitting. I don’t expect enforcement of it today. Seeing friends much deeper in the CZU fire that still haven’t left, so I think we’ll be good tonight. Packed and ready though.
My employer has made arrangements for employees affected by evacuations to get accommodations at reduced rates. I called for myself and cat, with research on the chicks. Arranged to park motorcycle under the HQ building where it will be secure. My girlfriend and her mom and 3 cats are likely to evacuate to Tahoe. Confirmed to move to hotel Sunday.
I expect to be telling this story for a long time to come.
It’s possible I’ll shelter the chicks here after evacuation – there is access from un evacuated road and I can feed/water them if needed. Optimally I won’t have to worry about them.
SFBayAreaGal
@wmd: Stay safe.
SFBayAreaGal
@Charlie Victory: I don’t know if you left yet. You can go out Lucas Valley Road. I hope your okay.
joel hanes
@Jerzy Russian:
Dead thread, but you’re conflating
wmd
Rumor mill has the town of Boulder Creek about to be engulfed.
tendancer
Napa Valley. Lucky enough this time to be on the far side of the valley from the LNU Lightning Complex/Hennessy fire. We’ve had a panoramic view of fire armageddon all week, though. Things look to be (modestly) improving, but I’m very worried about the forecast for possible dry lightning again this weekend. On our side, we got saved by inches from burning up in the Nun’s Fire in 2017; lots and lots and lots of fuel remains to be burned on both sides of the valley.
WaterGirl
@tendancer: A person’s first comment has to be manually approved, but future comments will go through right away.
The first comment also has to be manually approved if you change your screen name (nym) or your email address.
Otherwise, you are good to go.