It’s been a few days, and it seems like it might be good to have another check-in before the weekend, so let us know how you’re doing.
I heard talk of some blue skies somewhere out west, so hopefully some of you have gotten a break, for a little while at least. I also saw some talk of how hard it is to be limited because of COVID and then on top of that, you can’t even be outside because fo the fires and smoke.
Things are tough. Each new catastrophe doesn’t make the previous ones go away, it just piles on. The world keeps turning, and each day is one day closer to November, at least. I’m guessing that most of us who haven’t experienced the reality of the smoke and fires can’t truly know what it feels like. You can complain about it here, if that helps.
I added a new category – Wildfires – under Climate Change. I suspect we will be using it more and more in the years ahead.
It seems like things may be better in Oregon. How about California, Washington and Colorado? Or maybe the country is still burning, and fires were pushed out of the news.
Let us know how you’re doing.
Early Voting In Person Sept 21: Minnesota, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming
dmsilev
Here in the San Gabriel Valley, the air quality is a lot better than it was a week or so ago. The Bobcat fire is still burning and is still only partially contained, but it has shifted to mostly move north of the mountains. Not at all good news for the people living there of course.
Wag
Snow last week in the Colorado mountains has helped partially control many of the fires. In particular, the Grizzly Crek fire outside of Glenwood Springs and the Pine Creek fire near Grand Junction are both contained. The Cameron Peak Fire (100,000 acres) is flaring back up. Smoke in Denver is better than a few weeks ago, but not as good as last week during the snow.
Kent
Out of sight, out of mind here in the Portland area. We’ve had clear weather for the past 2 days and our ACI is down to 9, which is good.
It will probably be month or more until the arrival of winter snows puts some of the high elevation fires out for good. But I don’t think any new towns or developed areas are in any danger from any existing fire expanding. Some of these fires are still not entirely contained, but they are mostly contained in the directions of populations.
We seem to be back to business as normal with the nightly protests by the dingbat white anarchist types who want to break windows. They were on hiatus during the worst of the smoke.
theturtlemoves
West of Eugene, Oregon, things are definitely much improved. Lots of rain over the weekend has cleaned up the sky and the ash on the ground and helped in containment efforts for the Holiday Farm fire. So, actually fairly normal. Very excited to be able to see the sky again.
theturtlemoves
@Kent: Ah, I haven’t looked at the Oregonian site lately. The wonderfully helpful be-dreadlocked white folks are back at it up there again? Awesome.
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
I’m also in the San Gabriel Valley, and the difference in air quality is remarkable. I was able to walk outside in reasonable comfort yesterday, and I walked to the train station for the first time in more than a week this morning. We actually had a pretty strong marine layer this morning, which seems like a really good sign for us. I’m very worried about the people in the Antelope Valley, though; I doubt they were able to benefit, and it looks like the fire there is not even close to controlled.
Kent
Yep, like clockwork.
Honestly it’s partly the fault of the utterly incompetent Portland city Council and Mayor who have done not one fucking thing to co-op these protests by building new structures and mechanisms for BLM activists to engage in city government without protesting. Where are all the sit-down meetings with activists and efforts to incorporate them into a more inclusive form of city government? That’s right….crickets.
And yes, I know that most of these nightly protests are not actually legit BLM folks, but the usual anarchist riff raff. But providing mechanisms for actual greater involvement in government for those who actually want to affect change would go a long ways towards erasing whatever remaining legitimacy these nightly protesters have.
Haydnseek
@dmsilev: Yep. The air is better and Mt. Wilson looks like it’s survived yet another close call. Not completely out of the woods yet, but I’m optimistic.
Wapiti
A proposal for the Biden administration: a national Fire Guard for disaster and fire response, modeled on the National Guard/Reserves, but intended to be mobilized across state lines to provide support where the disasters are. Climate change is going to get worse, and we need to prepare for that.
When I was younger, Army soldiers would be sent to the fire lines. But there always another draw-down and the large numbers of fit young people under government control is no longer there.
theturtlemoves
@Kent: Yeah, Wheeler seems like a complete idiot. There was opportunity months ago to start a good dialog that was squandered. Now the narrative is being controlled by a bunch of folks that just like to break stuff.
FelonyGovt
Here in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County, the air quality is much improved and I’m no longer finding ash on everything in my yard. It’s scary to have the Bobcat fire seemingly out of control, however, and I still worry about my friends in the San Gabriel Valley (Pasadena, Altadena etc.) although the fire seems to be heading in the other direction.
Kent
Unfortunately his opponent in the upcoming election is an even bigger tool. Portland has this weird combination of archaic undemocratic structures and progressive semi-competent pols who hoard power and privilege over bureaus making the entire city a dysfunctional mess. And I say this as a progressive Democrat.
Roger Moore
@FelonyGovt:
Technically, Pasadena and Altadena are still in an evacuation warning. I guess they’re worried the fires around Mt. Wilson could still spread our way, but I’d think they’d include Sierra Madre in the list in that case.
evap
It’s not me, but my daughter in Bend, Oregon reports that rain on Friday night has cleared the air and they can go outside again and breath safely. The dogs are very happy!
Dan B
Seattle air has been fine. Today it’s 20 -50 AQI. We’ve got showers in the forecast so it should stay okay.
On the other hand Barr has declared us to be an anarchist city, along with Portland and NYC. Whee! The air clears and the storm clouds darken.
tommyspoon
We are no longer under an evacuation order, here in Milwaukie, OR. The air got a LOT better over the weekend, but it is back to just under triple digits this morning (99 as of this post).
Funny thing: I ordered an air purifier from Amazon on Friday. They said it would not arrive until the following weekend. We received it on Saturday, one day after ordering. Guess like someone figured we might need it.
Llelldorin
Hayward, CA here—the air quality is slowly starting to worsen again after a beautifully clear weekend, but it’s nothing like it was last week.
StringOnAStick
@Wapiti: I heard a NPR story yesterday that US Marines are being trained and sent to help with the fires.
More than anything we need to establish a permanent fire corps that has year round work doing fuels reduction. The story noted that it used to be that 75% of the “forest management money” was spent on this, and now 75% of it is spent fighting fires. Some proactive spending is important, and was a victim of the usual R determination to cut spending on things they don’t care about.
as far as skies in the Denver area goes, it was better after the snow storm but containment on the fire west of Fort Collins was still less than 10% due to steep terrain and lots of standing dead from beetle kill. The local news says the increase in smoke today here is due to a fire in southern WY.
WaterGirl
Can you guys let me know how often it would be helpful to have these?
Once a week? More than that? Less than that?
Anotherlurker
AQI of 49 here in Walnut Creek. Much improved over last week.
Geoduck
Olympia, WA. The smoke cleared off a couple of days back and we got some much needed rain.
laura
AQI is 70 in Sacramento. While poor, it’s an improvement over the last 2 weeks. The smell of smoke returned yesterday in the early afternoon and ash is on the cars again this morning. Roadie brother the younger is still unable to get near his Oroville/berry creek property to see what, if anything remains. He’s hoping that the pumphouse survived, but is accepting that nothing is left.
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
NE Portland’s smoke blew away Friday night, Saturday morning. Sat & Sun were wonderfully clear. Smoke has blown back in this morning – not nearly what it was during those awful 10 days. The whole place smells like wood smoke and, when I stand in the right spots around the neighborhood, I can see the smoke. But the skies are blue and according to ARCGIS, AQI in the area is only at ~70. That beats the snot out of the 500 we had for 6 straight days.
In short, it’s been nice to be able to be outside again.
Jay Noble
Need to add the Mullen, WY Wildfire. This is the Medicine Bow area SE of Laramie. We’ve added that smoke to the CO and west coast stuff. The AQIs are lower tha last weeks 150 range but the smoke smell is stronger
https://oilcity.news/wyoming/wildfire/2020/09/21/photos-mullen-fire-in-sw-wyoming-only-2-contained-likely-to-grow-due-to-strong-winds/
Sloane Petersons knee therapist
NorCal here, just south of Humboldt. This past week has given way to clear skies, except for light smokey conditions yesterday. Important thing is wind has remained calm, though the biggest fire – The August Complex which extends 195 miles on it’s western edge, is still burning with 20% contained. Fire fighters are exhausted and it may be quite a while before significant rain arrives. Calfire is looking for NG help with that western edge. Another hot 90s weekend ahead, however. We can get that kind of weather well into October. So, all in all it’s a wait and see picture.
Updates once a week would be fine. SoCal Bobcat fire could get a lot worse IF Santa Ana winds start to kick in. That comes out of the AZ desert area and blows west and north. 40-70mph winds could turn any existing fire into a full scale disaster.
dnfree
@Anotherlurker: Say hi to my brother in Walnut Creek. He’s the one with the sled dogs.
JaneE
Bishop here. Air has been better the last few days, but doesn’t qualify as good. Current AirNow AQI = 162, which is up about 30 points since this morning. Mountains and hills are still barely visible. If we get a breeze going, it will blow things up or down the valley, but not out or away. We moved here to get clean air. Right now Cucamonga is a lot better than we are. Story of my life.
craigie
Hollywood: the air is noticeably clearer, and it is maybe 10 degrees (F) cooler than yesterday, which also makes it nice. This morning was heavy, dense fog – nice to have, but I kept thinking other places could use that more. Sun is out and it’s a clear blue sky now, feels pretty normal.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
I believe that the thought is that if the wind shifts, it’s not far to a lot of homes on the south end of the fire and so the orders are still in force.
And most of the land between Route 2 and 138 is mountain or desert but there are communities and homes so it’s a balancing act, not enough people and equipment and reasonable ground conditions to fight a fire in the area it started in, along with a lot of fuel from it not having burned in so many decades. Also the AQI here is 76, half of what it was a few days ago.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Brentwood (East Bay)
It was clear and lovely Friday and Saturday, but yesterday it started getting smokey again and today we can’t see Mount Diablo or the Livermore hills. AQI is 82. Better than last week, but still not good.
On the other hand, having clear skies this weekend really makes one appreciate clean air!
WaterGirl
It’s nice to hear about some clear skies and breathable air!
At least everyone isn’t suffering like they were. Just some people…
Sister Golden Bear
SF Peninsula. For the last couple days we’ve finally had blue skies and good air (after 30 days straight of hazardous air conditions). The two closest fires (SCU and CZU) are almost fully contained.
There’s been forecasts that we may get smoke again, but so far our luck has held out
That said, my throat is still irritated and still finding it harder to take a deep breath.
the pollyanna from hell
In Denver I sleep out of doors. Thursday was the last morning I didn’t wake up a little sick from the smoke.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
The air is breathable, and the weather is beautiful. I won’t take it for granted in the same way again, though. I won’t forget and move on.
We have to do something about climate change!
featheredsprite
@Dan B: If Trump were running against an actual lizard, the folks in NYC, Seattle, and Portland would vote for the lizard. I might vote for the lizard, too.
opiejeanne
@Dan B: Over on the east side, our AQI was 8 when I got up this morning, by noon it was at 52, which felt a little ominous, but now it has fallen 10 points so I’m just a worry-wart because it’s going to rain again soon.
Tuesday night/Wednesday morning there’s supposed to be a huge rainstorm here that goes on for at least 3 days, probably for 4, complete with two days of thunderstorms, dumping over 2″ of rain in the first three days. The tomato plants are crapping out while there are still tons of green tomatoes on them, so we will try to ripen them on the kitchen counter, all 40 pounds (I may be off by 10 pounds, it may only be 30).
We ate our anarchist tuna sandwiches for lunch a while ago, but now the cleaning ladies are at work so we are out in the garden. I should say, we’re out in The Chaotic Rioting Anarchy Garden,
My cousin contacted me last week to ask if we were safe from the riots in Seattle. I asked her, “What riots?” She lives in Evanston, Wyoming and is married to an extremely aggressive RWNJ, so her access to information from the Real World is very limited, possibly by choice. I told her that the only rioting we had had was started by the idiot cops in Seattle, and she didn’t argue with me. My two daughters live in Seattle and they could hear the flash-bangs and worse, but their only concern was for the safety of the protesters.
opiejeanne
@StringOnAStick: The Republicans are notoriously anti-maintenance at the local, state, and Federal level. They always vote to let things fall apart rather than spending fewer dollars to prevent that happening.
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: I’d say run this twice a week because the situation can change rapidly. 7 days is too far apart, 3 or 4 days would be better I think.
KrackenJack
@WaterGirl:
The appropriate frequency is hard to gauge. The threat level varies quickly and Juicers are widely distributed. Perhaps twice a week with more when the threat rises…
Very nice pic, BTW. Is there a source I could link to if I share it?
beckya57
Much better here in Tacoma, WA. Air quality is good, able to breathe easily again.
The Lodger
@Kent: When I moved to the West Coast, I was struck by how similar Portland’s governmental structure is to Atlantic City, NJ. Think about that for a moment.
mvr
@Jay Noble: Yes, the Mullen fire is semi-local to my cabin (which I closed up for the teaching Marathon imposed on us to bet done by Thanksgiving in Lincoln, NE. Within a mile or two of some of my favorite fishing streams, but moving away from my cabin about 30 (ish) miles away given the prevailing westerlies and the fact that it would have to cross the Platte.
That said, a really large swath of the Medicine Bow/Routt National Forest has been in flames over the past 5 years. Beetle-kill and climate change will do that. And yet the Forest Service just Okayed a large area many-year management plan with an opaque environmental impact assessment the result of which is they can do what they want on the pretext of protecting us from falling timber.