Normally fires are helped by a wind condition known as Santa Ana winds. These winds blow from the desert towards the ocean, which is a reversal of the normal wind pattern. They are high-speed, dry winds that easily fuel fires. The unusual thing about the current fires is that we do not have Santa Ana winds right now.
However, we still have very high temperatures and low humidity. I heard that the temperatures in the fire area is 100+ and the humidity is in single digits. Another effect of the wind conditions is that I can see the fires at night.
Normally, the wind blows the smoke towards me and everything, including the sun, becomes obscured. However, the current wind conditions allow the smoke to go straight into the air.
At night, I can see the red blazes on the mountain sides on the other side of the Los Angeles Basin. It reminds me of when I saw Kilauea on Hawaii, but here there is more red. Whole sections of the mountain are covered in red dots (with some dots being very very large). There also appeared to be 5 different sections of fire.
The fires are terrible things, and I hope that they do not come any closer to the homes that are already threatened. To lose one's home must be an awful thing, and I hope nobody has to go through that.
Yesterday, I noticed that there appeared to be large thunder clouds over Los Angeles. I had seen these same clouds the day before as well. The clouds are actually from the fires. As you know, water vapor is one of the by-products of fire, and the clouds are the product of that water vapor. I took some pics of it as I was driving. The clouds in the picture aren't as big as they were the day before, but they are still pretty interesting.
Also, it is super hot at my house. At 10 PM at night, it is 80 degrees (27 C) in my house. I wish I had air conditioning.
P.S. As of last night, 18 homes had burned and 2 firefighters were killed. My thoughts and prayers go out to the familes who lost love ones and their homes.
12 comments:
Hi Jason it seems like almost every year i hear about fires in California. I think it was just last year that big fires burned a lot of homes in the san diego area and people were sleeping in the baseball stadium parking lot. But don't people realize the risk they're taking when the build houses in areas that hardly get any rain? Its a disaster just waiting to happen. And Jason, come on, 80 degrees is HOT ??? LOL try living where I live. 80 degrees is the low temperature for the day! :)
BTW, i ♥ your blog and pics n' stuff.
Jason, I´ve seen the fires on tv, as in reality some yrs. ago. We were in Glendale, Ca. and could see the fires in the San Bernardino area. All I can say, it was quite impressive at nite. Propz Pilgrim
The problem is that when you build your home, you don't expect fire to claim it. Sure you might live near the foothills, but you never anticipate that the fire will roar all the way down the mountain into your city.
If you have a home in the middle of the forest, then you will probably be aware of the risk, but if you buy a home in the suburbs, you hardly expect an enormous fire to consume your neighborhood.
Every place on this planet poses a few risks in terms of threats to your life and home, and California is no exception.
We don't have anything like this in the UK but our problem is flooding of river valleys and people who build homes in the flood plain of rivers for others to inhabit.
It's getting to be an annual sight for us as people's homes are inundated with filthy water and some of their possessions float away.
It's ironic that in one place we could do with more rain and in another less. It was ever thus!
when i see this stuff on the news and stuff, i cant help but just shake my head... i mean... this happend every year, but yet the cali. government hasnt invested enough to actually deal with it properly so every year they have the same problem >_>
meh, though, i heard a couple of canadian water scoopers/bombers have been sent down from BC to help with the cali fires
either way, hope you stay safe
Jason - You would definitely not like it here on the east coast. It is 80F in my house - with the A/C on!
Paris is not exactly fire prone. So that´s not a prob. :-)
Hey Tyler wildfires like these are an awesome force of nature. All humans can do is to mop up around the edges, and keep people safe. That didn't happen here in Australia last summer and 186 people died.
Actually there is something we all can do. Climate change is making the wildfire problem much worse. We can pressure our governments to agree to deep, binding cuts to carbon emissions.
Fires aren't a problem here in Iowa (thank heavens) BUT we have to deal with floods and Tornado
I'm not sure who said it but someone mentioned how where they live they get too much rain it's actually kind of like that here people are still cleaning up from some flash flooding around here and some are still cleaning up from the Flood Of 2008
Man, forest fires are scary stuff. I should note that area down on my list of places not to live long-term.
It's interesting how 80 degrees is your low, whereas our high is lower than 80 degrees. Perhaps you'd enjoy Midwest summers. ;-)
(Though it's actually uncharacteristically cool this summer, I hope this doesn't translate to a particularly bitter winter.)
Jason
I hope youad your family are safe and the fires are putout soon
I remember them well from my days in cali
take care and be safe
bob
I believe numbers have risen up to 58 homes burned, and 5 people trapped in the mountains due to ignoring evacuation orders. What were they thinking?! Perhaps that the fire may not reach them because they are higher up? Who knows, but thoughts go out to them.
It's shocking to hear that the fire is apparently only 5% contained - Mother Nature, we gotta hand it to you! :(
Also, with 80F, we'd be more than happy to swap climates! Some of our rain for some of your heat? lol
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