After four years of drought and a week of over 100 degree F temperatures, California is going up like a pile of kindling.
The Butte fire is 34 miles from me as the crow flies, 65,000 acres burnt so far, 20% contained. By the time it's done my wife and I expect that several friends and co-workers will have lost their homes.
Now the Valley fire is taking off 90 miles away from me, between the Napa Valley and Clear Lake. 40,000 acres have burned in less than a day (25,000 in the first five hours by one account), 0% contained. It's moving so fast it's all the emergency crews can do to evacuate residents ahead of the blaze. They have no water to even fight the fire in Middletown, "the hydrants ran dry".
I hope this is not out of place here, but it might not be a bad time to drop a few dollars on the Red Cross.
Bill
The Butte fire is 34 miles from me as the crow flies, 65,000 acres burnt so far, 20% contained. By the time it's done my wife and I expect that several friends and co-workers will have lost their homes.
Now the Valley fire is taking off 90 miles away from me, between the Napa Valley and Clear Lake. 40,000 acres have burned in less than a day (25,000 in the first five hours by one account), 0% contained. It's moving so fast it's all the emergency crews can do to evacuate residents ahead of the blaze. They have no water to even fight the fire in Middletown, "the hydrants ran dry".
I hope this is not out of place here, but it might not be a bad time to drop a few dollars on the Red Cross.
Bill
Not just California
NWCC :: Home
My wife and I just returned from a delightful trip through the Okanagan wine country - as far south as Osoyoos - literally on the Washington border, and every day we had a glimpse of "smoke from a distant fire" In fact, evening flare-ups of one only across the lake that had been smouldering for at least 2 weeks according to our B&B hosts.
Speaking of, as one of this forum's cohort of us self-congratulatory hobbyists, a humbling experience was our stay at the Observatory B&B, summer home of Jack and Alice Newton
Observatory B&B
Read the biography & accomplishments of this "amateur"
NWCC :: Home
My wife and I just returned from a delightful trip through the Okanagan wine country - as far south as Osoyoos - literally on the Washington border, and every day we had a glimpse of "smoke from a distant fire" In fact, evening flare-ups of one only across the lake that had been smouldering for at least 2 weeks according to our B&B hosts.
Speaking of, as one of this forum's cohort of us self-congratulatory hobbyists, a humbling experience was our stay at the Observatory B&B, summer home of Jack and Alice Newton
Observatory B&B
Read the biography & accomplishments of this "amateur"
There's also dozens of fires in British Columbia Canada, and even several in Alaska... WTF. There's also the threat of nuclear radiation coming over from Fukushima someday if those MANY tanks of bad water ever fail. Apparently the ocean currents bring that Fukushima water to our west coast here in the U.S., perhaps centered on Oregon, but also CA thru Alaska... What next?! Going east there might be more weather than you wanted as the global warming thing accelerates.
If I were you, I'd be more concerned with all the crap that's stored at the Hanford site: Hanford Nuclear Waste Cleanup Plant May Be Too Dangerous - Scientific American
jeff
California, Alaska , Northwest Territory and Saskatchewan have all had a very bad fire season.
Hope the fires are brought under control and no one is injured or loses property
Hope the fires are brought under control and no one is injured or loses property
Indeed, leaking single wall tanks etc - woulda thunk that radioactive garbage with half-life times measured in the millennia could possibly defeat hastily under- engineered storage and disposal plans?
Yeah, I have to say interior NorCal California living is seeming a bit overrated with the recent return of over 100F temps and that lingering "campfire" smell - if only it was a cute campfire with a marshmallow roast. Anyplace that has trees around it seems primed for an inferno, and this is no longer limited to remote forest. Now fires are burning through towns in the foothills... even Lake county is aflame. Very sad indeed. At least we have el Nino flooding to look forward to in a few months!
Well some minds ( guess whose?) are far more easily boggled that others
Mr Newton is what I think used to be called a compleat autodidact - a disarmingly charming couple, indeed.
You know, no doubt that he was a retail store manager for Sears and Marks & Spencer in our own little burg, and Alice was employed at BOM and UVIC before they " retired".
I'm up in Paradise CA, north of Oroville, at the moment, The canyon is pretty smoky. When I left Auburn CA, on Saturday, it was pretty smoky there as well. Another fire started yesterday between Oroville and Forbestown.
El Nino may not make it this far north. HeyBill
El Nino may not make it this far north. HeyBill
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