California Burning ... Again

Fuck that. If I woke up, looked out my window and saw that; I'd shit my pants.

 

This morning they pulled all of the firefighters off Mt. Wilson because it was too dangerous. Any wind change and they would have been in trouble.

 

Southern California is burning

<blockquote>LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A fast-moving wildfire with "a mind of its own" had more than doubled in size and threatened 10,000 homes in Southern California on Monday.

The Station fire had grown to 105,000 acres -- 164 square miles -- by Monday afternoon, up from 45,000 acres in the morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Web site.

The blaze, which was only 5 percent contained, was being fueled by dry air and protected by the steep terrain in and around the Angeles National Forest.</blockquote>http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/31/california.wildfires/index.html

The LA Times informs me that this is a pyrocumulus cloud:



The Times says the fire has destroyed 74 homes (so far), is threatening the Mount Wilson Observatory and is doing pretty much whatever the hell it wants to do. That fire and a couple of others are dominating reports on the Times' L.A. Now blog; the Times has also done something very interesting with a custom Google Map showing what's burning, where it's heading and what areas have been evacuated.

 

For those familiar with Dodger Stadium and it's location--pretty much just north of downtown.

Scary stuff. The 2007 fires got close to my neighborhood and it's no joke. I worry 2,000 times more about fires than I do earthquakes out here.

 

On an every-year basis, fires are far more worrisome.

But all it takes is the Big One.

 

It's gotten pretty damn hazy/smokey out here in Colorado.

 

Take a look at this time-lapse video on the fire. Wow.

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/08/new_time-lapse_contender.php

 

Another fire near Yucaipa -- way the hell out in San Berdoo County -- forced the evacuation of 200 homes: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/more-than-200-homes-evacuated-in-yucaipa.html

 

Re: Southern California is burning

Those aren't uncommon, but given the size, that one's impressive.

I saw one last week over where a farmer was doing a controlled burn. It was a humid day and all that humidity condenses after it rises with the heat and then cools. So I'd say seeing a cloud like that is good nws — there's an onshore flow and no Santa Ana.

 

That Station Fire has burned north, into the small towns of Agua Dulce and Acton -- which I drive by to/from work. You can see the plumes of smoke from the freeway, when you're not breathing it in.

Last Saturday, my son had two soccer games, the first of which started at 11:30 at the massive soccer complex on the east end of town. They were in the fourth quarter when ash started dropping out of the sky like snowflakes. Looking east was like looking at the nuclear winter: at 2 p.m. it looked like dusk; just a solid wall of brown.

They canceled the second game. In the meantime, the smell of smoke is there, but nothing like it was earlier in the week, even though the fire is bigger. The fact there are no Santa Anas -- even up where I live, where the wind blows all the freakin' time -- is a blessing.