Fire Season

A friend of mine has a cabin near the Santa Cruz area. She lost her Santa Barbara house in the Tea Fire and has spent the intervening years building her house back. I’m not sure, but I think she had lost a previous house in a fire, too. Her cabin near Santa Cruz is a mile and a half (as of yesterday) from the fire. Friends of hers have called her asking if there is anything they can go get in her cabin and she has replied, forget my cabin, just save yourselves. She says this with an air of resignation and profound exhaustion.

Today’s update

We got a major break in the weather overnight. No significant lightning, relatively light winds, and the usual onshore breezes are now blowing the smoke inland – which is bad for about 7 million other people. Firefighters made significant progress on local fires.

One person died in a remote part of the county, at the end of a long, narrow road, who refused to evacuate. Evacuation is a hard decision, but I encourage everyone to err on the side of safety – and the law.

A small fire broke out early this morning in the woods about a mile from our house. Local firefighters and Cal Fire jumped on it, and had it under control in about 45 minutes. We didn’t even know until several hours later.

But I get irritated when local news anchors say that a particular fire is burning “in the middle of nowhere,” when I’ve been backpacking or day hiking there, and know people who farm or ranch in those areas.

Here’s an incomplete list of local, state, and federal parks and wilderness areas at least partially burned by major fires near me in the past eight days.

Año Nuevo State Park
Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve
Austin Creek State Recreation Area
Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument
Big Basin Redwoods State Park
Butano State Park
California Coastal National Monument: Cotoni-Coast Dairies
Cascade Ranch State Park
Henry Coe State Park
Henry Cowell State Park
Joseph D Grant County Park
Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park
Lake Berryessa
Lake Sonoma
Limekiln State Park
Los Vaqueros Reservoir
Morgan Territory
Ohlone Wilderness
Pescadero Creek County Park
Point Reyes National Seashore
Portola Redwoods State Park
Round Valley Regional Park
Sunol Regional Wilderness
Toro Regional Park
Ventana Wilderness
Wilder Ranch State Park

Judy and I went for a walk on the beach today – our first in more than a week. The air is relatively good, and it was wonderful to get a short break from the gloom and doom. The weather forecast is for light winds, increased humidity with morning fog along the coast, and seasonal temperatures for the rest of the week. Typical August weather.

It feels to me like we’ve turned a major corner on local wildfires. I hope my optimism is justified.

As before – we’re very fortunate. Our hearts go out to many friends and neighbors evacuated or burned out recently.

— Rex

several air quality links

oregon, washington, idaho:

http://lar.wsu.edu/airpact/gmap/ap5/ap5smoke.html

u.s. and canada:

https://www.weather.gc.ca/firework/firework_anim_e.html?type=tc&utc=00

u.s. and canada fires:

https://www.fireweatheravalanche.org/fire/?fref=gc

Todays brief update:

Firefighters made good or fantastic process on local fires. Fire crews from all over the country are on the lines, including one from New Jersey! Our old friend “fog” is back, the air is cleaner around here than it’s been for many days, and we actually turned the heater on a few minutes ago as temperatures have dropped.

Bad news is that more than 400 structures confirmed destroyed locally, and that number expected to continue rising as roads are cleared and unmapped homes discovered. This county has a long history of off-the-record home building in the deep woods. In one fire several years ago, the majority of houses destroyed were unpermitted and officially didn’t exist.

Main fire season just getting started here. Plan to clear brush and other flammable vegetation around your home soon. Stay safe from all the perils out there.

— Rex

Here is a good air quality site using sensor data

https://www2.purpleair.com

Thats a good one ken

This should be worth a listen.

Daniel Swain of weatherwest.com on KQED Forum earlier today:

The link between Climate change and wildfires

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-25/some-of-the-most-startling-images-of-wildfires-raging-through-northern-california

Some amazing pictures.  Warning – some of them hard to look at.

Today’s update:

Fire news has been mostly good for the last 48 hours. Containment lines are expanding, satellites show very few hot spots, many evacuation orders have been lifted, and they arrested the confessed thief who stole the fire chief’s wallet and drained his bank account.

Unfortunately, air quality is hit or miss, depending on where the fog was, and when or if it decides to leave. The number of damaged or destroyed homes keeps climbing, and will probably exceed 1,000 locally, as teams reach previously inaccessible areas. Many roads are still impassable, burnt trees and hillsides keep falling, and some homes are in the back of beyond. Several evacuated zones may not open for many weeks, waiting on road and utility repairs.

I just returned from a walk on the beach and bluffs in clean-ish air. Climbing the steps up the bluff put me out of breath, which is not normal. Probably something to do with breathing smoke for a week and a half, and very limited exercise.

But we have our home, and all of our friends and possessions, so we’re quite lucky. Too many people have no home to return to.

— Rex