California's Drought

I moved this from the NO. Cal thread.

CN,  How are you doing with the Laverne Fire?

Audrey,  How are you doing with the Hogback Fire?  It looks like it is 80% contained.

Amending:  The Detwiler fire approaching Mariposa town along historical Highway 49.  Almost 50,000 acres since July 16 but only 7% contained.  Please stay safe.

I'm not familiar with the Hogback fire.  I will have to go look it up.   

The Detwiler fire is growing into a monster, it's scary when they take on a life of their own.  

We had a switch on our well literally burn up last week.  If it had caught the grass around the well head on fire there was a hay stack just 25 feet away, it could have been really bad.  The GRACE OF GOD protected us and our neighbors!

I cannot imagine....

Audrey.Jeanne, glad y'all are okay!

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:I'm not familiar with the Hogback fire.  I will have to go look it up.   

The Detwiler fire is growing into a monster, it's scary when they take on a life of their own.  

We had a switch on our well literally burn up last week.  If it had caught the grass around the well head on fire there was a hay stack just 25 feet away, it could have been really bad.  The GRACE OF GOD protected us and our neighbors!

So many small and unexpected things can cause a fire. So glad you were spared.

Very sad to see so many people being affected by the fires in western parts of both Canada and the USA.

So many small and unexpected things can cause a fire. So glad you were spared.

Homes were lost here this week when someone improperly disposed of BBQ ashes and they flared up un-noticed. It was an accident, but that doesn't help those who lost everything. Thankfully, our fire dept is fabulous. They had the fire under control in just a few hours.

A touch of hot weather.

Fresno

Redding

sanderson wrote:A touch of hot weather.

Fresno

Redding

A touch? More like an eruption. I don't think it's ever gonna end.

This was before 7 pm.  It just rained again!  Big heavy drops beating on the metal patio covers.

We were supposed to get rain last night, but it didn't happen. I think some parts of our area got it, however.

And, California burns again. The map inset shows the North Bay and South Bay of the San Francisco Bay. Petaluma is where Ken and I stayed when we attended the Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa (north). We drove north from Santa Rosa on 101 on our mini vacation, following the famed Russian River. This area is famed for wine vineyards and is a must for those who like wine tasting expeditions. http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/10-dead-as-wine-country-fires-burn-at-least-1500-structures-force-evacuations/ar-AAt93dp?li=BBnb7Kz#image=67

sanderson wrote:And, California burns again.  The map inset shows the North Bay and South Bay of the San Francisco Bay.  Petaluma is where Ken and I stayed when we attended the Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa (north).  We drove north from Santa Rosa on 101 on our mini vacation, following the famed Russian River.  This area is famed for wine vineyards and is a must for those who like wine tasting expeditions.  http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/10-dead-as-wine-country-fires-burn-at-least-1500-structures-force-evacuations/ar-AAt93dp?li=BBnb7Kz#image=67

So sorry that this is happening again. I just watched some news footage of it on our Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) evening news. Unreal destruction of buildings and tragic loss of life.

The winds have calmed for the night , I hope they stay that way.  The Canyon Fire 2 in SoCal exploded from a brush fire at 25 acres this morning at 10AM to 2500 acres at 1pm to 5000 acres at sundown fueled by 70 mph wind gusts in the canyon. 

It's basically burning up the canyon of the regional parks into the suburban neighborhoods.  Like many in our neighborhood we're readying evac plans in case the winds come back in the morning as expected and the fire breaks out or even if it doesn't and just the smoke and ash comes in so thick.

NSR, Stay safe. It's wise that you are prepared to evacuate. Better to be prepared than scrambling at the last minute.

We're at least 50 miles from the nearest fire, but the wind shifted and now we're completely socked in with nothing but gray skies in all directions. The winds are calm now, but supposed to pick up again tonight.  The before and after images are frightening -- regular flat, accessible neighborhoods wiped out. What a wake-up call for the rest of us. They're saying a brush fire started the worst one. Who in their right mind would start a brush fire in these conditions?

Allegedly, this is a photo over Disneyland, California, yesterday.  I don't recognize it, but then, it has been years since I was there. NSR, is the air around your place like this?

That's California Adventure. 

Yes that's actually after the smoke started to thin and spread a bit.  With the wind earlier the smoke stay more concentrated, darker and thicker.  

Wind has been blowing the fire east towards Cleveland Nat. forest. Away from most housing with soft winds overnight allowing the firefighters to get line shots in to halt westward into neighborhoods like in Santa Rosa.  During the day the winds were driving it west into the neighborhoods.  Regional park about  2 mile away is burned out.

Here's the smoke cloud at 1PM when the fire was still sub-2000 acres.  The walk up my street from picking my son up at school.

Yikes those photos paint an ominous picture of what is going on.  Keep safe.

The air quality is getting worse here, but not nearly as bad as down south. I was so hoping we were done with the fires for this year, but these winds are just brutal.  There's rain in our long-range forecast, but it's still a week out.

NSR,  My cousin lives in Westminster.  Here is a photo she took on the 405 (?) overpass.

It is all over the news.  Yes, all in peril's way, stay safe!

I know the news is meant to be "sensational", but goodNESS! The screen shots are awful! Please be safe...

Jimho, Orange County through the dedicated efforts of firefighters and some luck with the winds dodged a big bullet.  The winds where blowing more north south driving the fire more east up hill into the canyons instead into the homes.  Typically with Santa Ana conditions the winds come out of where the fire was and into the surburban home area that evacuated 5000 homes.  The regional park bordering it burned. 

I hate to imagine our normal 35-40 mph Santa Ana winds blowing into the neighborhoods with gust to 50 mph driving the fire into the homes.

So much for working on the winter garden.  I just walked out side and could smell smoke.  The trees down the street were fuzzy.  I know it doesn't look like the other photos but we don't have any fires in the Central Valley.


This is the CA Fire map of current fires.  You can see Fresno in the Central Valley - no fires.  The Anaheim / Disneyland fire is at the bottom of the map.  The next fire up the coast is basically contained.  I think we will go to the coast (Pismo) for a couple days to get away from the nasty smoke.  The large cluster of fires just north of SF is the famed wine country of Napa-Sonoma-Mendocino counties.  The Heirloom Exposition is held in Santa Rosa and Highway 101 runs up the famed Russian River.  I think the death count is up to 20 in this region of fires.  There's also a row of fires to the east running up the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains (the Donner Party).  ONe of those fires is relatively near the Oroville Dam that spilled this spring.  Those folks can't catch a break this year.