California fires

So many things are causing these fires. One near Estacada, OR was started by a motor home catching on fire. The fire spread quickly to a nearby home and nearby brush. The heat and low humidity and an ongoing drought have created lethal conditions. And some people are just not careful enough and do stupid things, like the gender party fiasco. If people had just stayed home instead of going camping for Labor Day it would have helped.

Today I look out my window and can see twice as far as I did yesterday, but I still can't see the nearby hills. I step outside and the smell of smoke is still awful. At least this morning at 8 it was 49 degrees instead of 58. There is no wind.
 

The no east wind is good. We need a light wind from the west, to clear away the smoke. As of last night they said the wind from the Pacific is supposed to start sometime this afternoon. We don't have air conditioning either. We rarely need it, so it hasn't been worth the investment. We revisit that decision every year.
 
911 said:
I heard on TV last night that California had an orange sky and that these fires could set a new record for the total number of acres that have been destroyed.
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Today we expected the skies to clear up more. However on this morning's news they said that since the fires have grown larger, there is a larger amount of smoke and ash in the atmosphere. They still do hope that when the wind shifts direction it will push the fires back on themselves and that will help put them out, since the fuel has already burned there. But they are now saying our skies here in western Oregon will probably not clear for several more days. We are supposed to get a little rain starting Monday. But they don't expect more than .25 of an inch.

One of the neat things is how many people are donating stuff to help out those who have lost everything. In Springfield, OR cars are lined up and people are unloading their donations at this one local school. The Red Cross is helping people find shelter and volunteers are helping organize and make available the donations. I always figure if you donate stuff, rather than money at least you know it doesn't go into the pocket of someone who doesn't need it. I think a lot of people feel that way since all the major charities have had cases of embezzlement from within.
 
Around here, the schools are offering shelter to the animals and the people being displaced by the fires.

A lot of donations are being made, money, bedding, food, snacks....etc. Everyone is really pulling together to help in anyway needed. It's heartwarming to see......and yes, i'm doing my part.
Even land offered where people can bring their horses, etc.
 
There is honest to God fog here today. When I went out to feed the critters I only smelled a little smoke. The visibility is low, but the air does not look brownish like it has been. Now, they are not reporting this on the news, so the fog must be spotty. One news station is 40 miles away and several others are 60. The leaves on the bushes are a little glisteny. I'm anxious to see if the fog lifts, or if it will be this way all day. It was 48 degrees at 7:45 am. Yesterday it only got to 68 here. That was because of the smoke. The weather forecast does not take the smoke into account. Their computer models don't know from smoke, I guess. Grin.
 
Phoenix said:
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.
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Makes me wonder if we'd ever be able to see a nuclear winter...we probably wouldn't make it through a nuclear episode imo.:oops::cry:
 
I got an update this morning from a dear friend who lives in Berkeley, CA. He says the air is very bad, and he's confined to home because he has COPD and it isn't safe for him to go out. It just seems to get worse, I feel so bad for all the people affected and for the firefighters especially. It takes a special kind of person to do that job.
 
Ruthanne said:
I see your point. I guess I was thinking of a nuclear bomb pointed at the USA.
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Okay, let's say it hit LA. That area would be wipe out. But in NY it would take a while for the effect to hit. If there was only one bomb, most of those on the planet would survive it. If there were bombs all over the planet, we would be wiped out, either immediately or because of nuclear winter.
Autumn said:
I got an update this morning from a dear friend who lives in Berkeley, CA. He says the air is very bad, and he's confined to home because he has COPD and it isn't safe for him to go out. It just seems to get worse, I feel so bad for all the people affected and for the firefighters especially. It takes a special kind of person to do that job.
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I hope your friend will be okay. The fires are growing. There aren't enough people to fight them. They explode into larger fires over night sometimes. One fire I heard of was consuming one thousand acres per half hour.
 
Phoenix said:
Okay, let's say it hit LA. That area would be wipe out. But in NY it would take a while for the effect to hit. If there was only one bomb, most of those on the planet would survive it. If there were bombs all over the planet, we would be wiped out, either immediately or because of nuclear winter.

I hope your friend will be okay. The fires are growing. There aren't enough people to fight them. They explode into larger fires over night sometimes. One fire I heard of was consuming one thousand acres per half hour.
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But how do you know the strength of a Nuclear Bomb? I would think some of them could wipe out an entire country.
 
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