Lots of activity today. A few days ago, what we call a backdoor cold front slid south from Canada and hit Washington with some lightning, so that's the cause of some of the plumes in the NW.
Rough night with high winds and low humidities across WA, OR, and CA. New fires and established fires both grew rapidly leading to nighttime evacs and major road closures. One small town in WA got wiped off the map and numerous homes throughout both states were consumed. Wind event will continue through tomorrow. Conservatively, OR and WA saw acreage grow by at least 300,000.
In SF today the air is better after some marine air blew in late yesterday, but other wildfire smoke is sitting on top of that, so it's this eerie yellowish reality, with clean smelling air, but occasional flurries of ash floating down.
I heard an interesting comparison that helped me wrap my head around how big and fast this fire is moving -- about every 30 minutes an area the size central park is burning.
Fort Collins: Hold my beer. Photos from the Cameron Peak fire which exploding a few days ago I guess this is what it would look like with some wind that Cameron Peak had
It's ... crazy here. Went to Yosemite over the weekend and had plans to stay the week. We were choking on ash from the Creek Fire and so had to head back to San Francisco. Woke up today and the sun was blotted out by the pyrocumulonimbus clouds; 5 yr old is doing distance learning and we're pretending it's "Mars Day" the fires are creating their own weather. Friends in Oregon are reporting worsening conditions. The entire West Coast is on fire.
Thanks for this. Do you have any leads to primary sources/studies that can point to a way forward / corroborate some of the numbers? It's clear we need to be much more ambitious with funding and have a 1, 5, 10, 20 years plan. Wondering how we can push for action now.
I remember during the Oakland Hills fire and when the smoke first went in front of the Sun it looked like the sky was the color of ice tea. Seeing these pics it looks even worse.
Have a friend in Oregon. He sees the orange sky too. Near an evacuation zone, day-to-day to see if the family is asked to leave.
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/in...uations-leave-family-members-dead/5759101002/ Story about the man in Oregon trying to find his family that was trapped by the fire. Some haunting, heartbreaking stuff.
Oh hell, can't read it right now, just like-ing and replying so I can find this post later, but I'm already sad. Just horrible.