California fires

I'm in San Jose and the last four days have been some of the best air quality we've had in weeks. San Jose is a fairly large city so what's happening in my area might not be happening in another area of the city.

The worst air quality we had was about three weeks ago for about a week. I wasn't even walking the dogs on those days. After that sometimes it was decent in the morning then got bad again around noon. Other days it was smoky in the morning and then cleared up in the late afternoon and early evening. It all depended on the direction of the prevailing winds.

Most of our fires are grass fires because as Lethe200 alluded to we generally don't get much if any rainfall between May and mid October. The grass grows after the winter rains and then dries out quickly.
 

Mrs. Robinson said:
This is the small town of Willits,just north of us. This was at 2:30 this afternoon. Within 20 minutes of taking this pic,the sky turned completely black and it looked like it was midnight...My daughter and granddaughter were there yesterday when this fire started and got through right before they closed the highway.

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When I saw this I didn’t know what to say. Three time’s I wrote something only to erase it.
Stay safe. I am thinking of you all out there.
:(
 
asp3 said:
I'm in San Jose and the last four days have been some of the best air quality we've had in weeks. San Jose is a fairly large city so what's happening in my area might not be happening in another area of the city.

The worst air quality we had was about three weeks ago for about a week. I wasn't even walking the dogs on those days. After that sometimes it was decent in the morning then got bad again around noon. Other days it was smoky in the morning and then cleared up in the late afternoon and early evening. It all depended on the direction of the prevailing winds.

Most of our fires are grass fires because as Lethe200 alluded to we generally don't get much if any rainfall between May and mid October. The grass grows after the winter rains and then dries out quickly.
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Are you and yours okay?
 

Phoenix said:
Are you and yours okay?
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Yes, we're fine thank you. The closest evacuation area to us was about five miles to the east of us, but that is at the base of the foothills. The foothills are very sparsely populated and have a lot of open space with lots of grass, bushes and some trees.

I'm fairly sure that the evacuation area was cancelled one or two weeks ago but I'm not 100% sure.
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
This is the small town of Willits,just north of us. This was at 2:30 this afternoon. Within 20 minutes of taking this pic,the sky turned completely black and it looked like it was midnight...My daughter and granddaughter were there yesterday when this fire started and got through right before they closed the highway.

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This seems like a diabolical and un-nerving, weird, carnival-like entrance into Hell! :cry: Thank goodness they got out!
 
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Yes, the firefighters are heroes and so brave.

We have smoke from the fires here but no ash. When Yellowstone burned we were covered in ash. Fires are so horrific. You have to wonder, with all that is happening, if it is the predicted ”end of days” that is being previewed.

I remember the signs we would always see in Los Angeles, held up street people, when we went downtown to the movies. “Repent the end is near”. Makes you wonder.
 
Curious about what steps are taken to help restore the acres burned. I know fires are good for regrowth but what does the forest service do to assist?
 
fmdog44 said:
Curious about what steps are taken to help restore the acres burned. I know fires are good for regrowth but what does the forest service do to assist?
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I'm not sure what is being done in the areas that have burned recently but the forest that burned in Yosemite years back and then a few years later is basically being left to recover by itself. Although I really miss the forests around Yosemite the way they were years ago it is interesting to go back every year and see the forest slowly recovering.

What many people don't realize is that fires are a natural part of the lifespan of a forest. The problem is that our fire suppression activities have allowed the amount of unburned, fuel rich forest much higher so that when a fire does start it's easier for it to keep burning because there is so much land that will easily burn. What we need are more prescribed burns for a number of years.
 
We have some interesting sky this morning in San Jose and had it yesterday morning as well, however this morning it's more pronounced. The lighting in the area is very yellow this morning however there is little or no noticeable smoke smell. I read about it yesterday and evidently the marine layer is coming in under the smoke from fires up north making our skies yellow without having smoke in the air we're breathing.

For a great description of what the marine layer is check out the Wikipedia entry for it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_layer .
 
asp3 said:
What we need are more prescribed burns for a number of years.
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For centuries, when the Native American Indians occupied the forests, they instituted "controlled burns", which kept the dried vegetation and underbrush from sparking into uncontrolled forest fires. Then, when European ancestry settlers began to populate the western states, the governments banned these fires. As a result, the forests are littered with vegetation that does little other than act as fuel for any fires Nature starts.

Finally, there appears to be some recognition that the Indians knew far more about sustaining the environment than our politicians, and perhaps there will be movement towards returning to policies that help prevent these annual "tragedies".

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/8994...nia-looks-to-what-tribes-have-known-all-along
 
Here in western Oregon this morning the air is thick with smoke. We can't see the nearby hills. The deck, covers on the cars and the ground has a dusting of ash like a light snow. Breathing it in is not something one wants to do. The orange sky that we saw yesterday afternoon is now just the color of smoke. We have no wind. We are about 60 miles from the nearest fire as far as I know. More fires have been sparked in some areas and some of the smaller ones are merging. I looked at the local news station online, but their live coverage doesn't start again until 11. The fire situation in so many places in 9 western states must surely be what people have imagined that hell looks like. I think that's been mentioned here before. Supposedly the air will clear out some tomorrow as the wind shifts to a different direction. Right here we have no wind at the moment. But we are in the rain shadow so sometimes the worst of things miss us. Yesterday it was supposed to get to be 95 degrees. The smoke was so thick that it only got to 82.

I feel so sorry for the wild animals who have no choice but to breath the air. When I went out to feed some of the wild critters, they seemed disoriented. They are also eating the ash as they eat grass, seed heads and such which is covered with it. We provide them water.

Yesterday my husband and I talked about getting stuck in the fire. We decided that if someone knocked on our door and told us we had to evacuate immediately and go with them in their vehicles, if we could not take our cat, we would not go. You don't leave your best friends behind. We decided we have had good long lives, and we could choose to go out with the cat if it came to that. Some people north of here were evacuated with only what they were wearing.

It's caused me to think more about the end and how to face if calmly. We all have to face that sooner or later. Since so many I know have died I've considered it regularly. This time I plan to make peace with it.

Becky1951 said:
Just heard from my DIL, so far the fire is keeping away from them. She said there are firemen all over town and they have set up shelters and firemen camps, the town of Mill City is gone. So much destruction from all these fires. :cry:
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Glad your DIL and family are okay. Mill City. Wow. That was a neat little town in a beautiful area. I had a friend who was principal of the high school there once upon a time.
 
Northern Calif. here; not too far from the Bear Fire, so we also had an reddish/orange sky and darkness 'till about Noon today; so much ash outside and on the vehicles, looked almost like snow. Have a cousin-in-law who had to evacuate for several days due to the Claremont fire (but didn't lose his house luckily); and now another cousin-in-law (the 1st one's brother) is probably going to have to evacuate due to this Bear fire.
 
officerripley said:
Northern Calif. here; not too far from the Bear Fire, so we also had an reddish/orange sky and darkness 'till about Noon today; so much ash outside and on the vehicles, looked almost like snow. Have a cousin-in-law who had to evacuate for several days due to the Claremont fire (but didn't lose his house luckily); and now another cousin-in-law (the 1st one's brother) is probably going to have to evacuate due to this Bear fire.
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It's scary stuff.
 
asp3 said:
I'm not sure what is being done in the areas that have burned recently but the forest that burned in Yosemite years back and then a few years later is basically being left to recover by itself. Although I really miss the forests around Yosemite the way they were years ago it is interesting to go back every year and see the forest slowly recovering.

What many people don't realize is that fires are a natural part of the lifespan of a forest. The problem is that our fire suppression activities have allowed the amount of unburned, fuel rich forest much higher so that when a fire does start it's easier for it to keep burning because there is so much land that will easily burn. What we need are more prescribed burns for a number of years.
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Yup, that’s why they let Yellowstone burn, to let the forest regrow
 
I hope your relatives will stay safe Don. I've been seeing images and videos of the fires and they are terrifying to me, so I imagine how utterly terrifying they must be for people surrounded by them. I feel so bad for those affected. I have a friend who lives in Cali but her area has never had the fires. However, at the beginning of this latest rash of fires, she told me how bad the air quality is. At that time she said the fires were about 20 miles away.
 
One of the things I just realized with all the smoke in the air is that this is what nuclear winter would look like. The sun would not get through and everything would die off.
 
My youngest brother had to evacuate his home in Glide Oregon last night. He did get some things loaded into his car before he left, but most of his possessions are still there. When I talked to him this morning he had moved up to Roseburg and was staying with friends, but they are worried that they may have to evacuate from there as well. One of his firefighting friends back in Glide told him that his house was still standing.

My firefighter Grandson has been moved from a fire in his home state of Washington down to Northern California to fight the Red Salmon Fire. I got a text from him a little while ago. He says that the terrain is very steep and the weather is very hot. He had just finished a 24 hour shift.
 
This was taken yesterday around the old neighborhood. Much cooler daytime temps with all the smoke blocking the sun. Ashes coming down like snow. We have all our windows closed and with the much cooler weather, we at least don't have to run our swamp cooler.
Lost my appetite for having some barbecued beef steaks. Think I'll just fry them on the stove.. 🥩 👨‍🍳

septfire.jpg
 
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