OT - California is on fire...
dracorn
Posts: 2,345
I live in the Central Valley due east of San Francisco. Air quality is especially bad because the biggest fire, caused by lightning, is burning 30 miles south of us.
Yesterday there was ash all over my car.
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People have an unhealthy view of nature, IMO. I complain about this often. Overgrown is not healthy, and wildfire is the result. People like to see overgrown shrubs, but that is ugly and dangerous to me.
I know it's similar in Australia. City folk telling people in the Bush how nature ought to be. It's a recipe for disaster.
I just moved out of LA last weekend to go back home (didn't plan on the sudden but the pandemic pretty much forced it to happen) but one of the things that I was actually happy about was I was leaving right before wildfire season as I have really bad lung problems and every year I can't breathe when the fires start up. I heard the air quality has already turned bad in LA from the fires up north. Last year I was living like three minutes from one of the big fires and the one off Sepulveda Blvd in the Sherman Oaks area was right by my office and we had to evacuate as things got hairy fast. Scary stuff. I hope you and everyone else in California are able to stay safe and able to breathe all right. Plus it doesn't help probably with all the rolling blackouts they're doing. I'm not sure if that's happening up north, but my friends in SoCal are dealing with that and the heat. They really should do the controlled burning thing throughout the year so this doesn't happen, or at least helps make it controllable.
Probably would be less of a problem if there weren't so many city folk people building homes close to or in the bush without knowing how to build properly to avoid their home burning down...
Isn't it interesting, that so many natural disasters wouldn't be as disastrous if there weren't so many people around...
& yet in Tennessee we are under flood warning everyday. 42 straight days of rain and cloudy weather. . Boy I wish we could send you some of this rain. I think we will need to start building a ark soon
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/202007
Wishing all you Californians well. I hope everybody is able to stay safe. Evidently 7th Stone has already had to evacuate: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/5934221/#Comment_5934221
Well, if there wouldn't be people around, they wouldn't be considered "disasters". They'd just be stuff that happens.
And the way things go, disasters for some are opportunities for others. For instance Covid is causing a lot of people to leave overly congested urban centers like the Bay Area and NYC thereby increasing property values in destination areas and relieving price pressures in the centres. That works out well for some, and not so well for others. There are also warnings that a successful Covid vaccine could spell bad news for some investors. Trying to paint everything as good or bad or this or that is for political rallies and Twitter. Reality is always messier.
A lot of the disaster news coverage is dumb like that.
Worst disaster ever? Well, I mean, we build out into nature, and then there's inflation (and speculation/price gambling in California real estate)... so, of course it's the "worst" ever.
Incompetence is more concerning than $$$ values, but the $$$ value gets the big headlines.
I live near Sacramento and the air from the fires hasn't been good. As soon as you open your door you're hit with a strong burning smell. The air is hazy and the light is strange. Weird orange tint to it - making all the shadows look REALLY blue and unnatural. I hope the fires are extinguished soon.
Here in LA, it’s mostly been overcast which I guess is due to the fires. I do feel my asthma is a bit worse than normal. I don’t smell anything yet though but my eyes are starting to burn. I hope everyone will be OK and that wildlife won’t be too devastated. I really don’t understand the science of how lightning keeps striking when it’s dry weather...
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-dry-thunderstorm-3444302
California is very dry right now. We had a very unusual weather event of lightning storms which lasted for hours and then started blazes which smouldered for several days. There was also an accused arsonist involved who is responsible for an additional fire in Big Sur.
I live in the center of three growing fires. The air quality is very poor, and I must stay indoors even to walk the dog, as the air is bad for her too.
There is little that people can really do to stop fires at certain times of year in calfornia. We are a dry state. Building homes with fires in mind, is key... Creating spaces around them, so that there is no fuel to burn is also key.
Unfortunately, people who don't live in this state, are very quick to judge what california should and should not do. There is no one solution, and each area has different concerns. It is a complex issue, and not a political one, as people like to make it.
As a native Californian that knows what fire season is like, and currently living in Denver, CO and with the smoke from the fires in the Rockies covering us for the past few weeks, I understand the frustration of these fires, and when I saw the scope of your fires on a map in California, I was shocked. I need to contact my son, who is also east of Sacramento and find out how his family is doing. Have to wait for Saturday when he is off duty.
Earlier this week, I went out at about 5pm and found the air quality here had changed to soupy and grungy from just two hours before. My skin was gritty.
California is a lovely state with wide swaths of open land, deserts, and forests. Along with ranches, farms, orchards, and small towns that have been around since the late 1700s along the El Camino Real. It is not all cities, suburbs, and beaches.
I hope everyone in California is and remains safe, healthy, along with loved ones.
It's definitely as you just said.
I think people sometimes tend to listen to individuals who have absolutely no idea how complex these situations are and take those proclamations as an expert assessment... while California is indeed a dry state, many other places in this country could experience the same tragedies playing out in California right now if the weather were to change drastically... few people realize they live in "once in a hundred years" disaster zones until that timer runs out and then they get to experience the pontifications of all knowing pundits too.
My friend lives on the coast near the LNU Lightning Complex Fire in Sonoma (or I think it's that one, there are so many now he doesn't know which one it is)... He's spent half his life in his rustic home in the woods, he spends great amounts of efforts clearing brush, creating open spaces around his home and doing everything he can to minimize his risks... but now he's watching a fire line move along twenty miles or so from his home and if the wind shifts he'll have no choice but to abandon everything.
People don't realize it's not like folks who live in these areas are stockpiling dry brush or blissfully ignoring the problem. The climate has gotten significantly drier over the past several years and is getting worse... cut back too much and you get erosion or mudslides which can happen when the rains finally come... should everyone just abandon their homes and go somewhere else?
I think sometimes people need to ask themselves how ready to leave their own homes and communities would they be if their environment changed drastically and they faced the same dangers.
It's so bad that it's making the sky merky in the Phoenix area where I am. It adds to the pleasantness of the heatwave we are having.
yet another reason I am glad I don't live in California. The worst natural things I have to deal with are drought, tornados and hail. I love the beach, but I am a realist and know that if there is a chance something can happen, it will at one point, no sense chancing it if I can help it which is why I will never live in a place where a hurricane can wipe out my house.
Interesting article on why California has so many fires every year
https://www.nytimes.com/article/why-does-california-have-wildfires.html
Stay safe everyone
Wow, that is some insane lighting, no wonder there are fires
It's really very simple. People can look at the ecology and the history of a given area. If that area has a history of many wild fires, it's not a good idea to live there.
Indeed
as an Australian I sympathise
I also know how Mum and I used to drive thriugh the hills and discuss how dangerous some places people chose to build houses surrounded by vegetation were, when we holidayed in the Blue Mountains in NSW we were both also horrified by where people chose to live in their picturesque wooden cabins.
All those places were subsequently burned out!
there are towns for a reason and those are surrounded by clearings
Farms are also usually surrounded by cleared paddocks, the back to nature secluded log cabin should only suitable for holidays during wintery no danger seasons and one takes the risk of losing it.
Yeah, those lighting strikes came in the middle of the night and they were so loud and numerous - we didn't get much sleep at all that night.
(Edited because it was a very unpleasant thought. lol)
If I stick by the strict daz3d.com TOS. Then I am not allowed to post religion or politics, which means I am not allowed to post any "Doomsday Prediction" links either (kind of religious). But there is this very old silly conspiracy theory that there is a number of signs that are to single the the end of the world, This year so far in 2020 we have met 5 of them. properly just coincidence though.
So I will leave you with a Song
End of the world as we know it
Californians are resilient.
When I got up, smoke and ash fall from the sky. It coats the ground like dandruff. The sky is yellow and orange, and I work indoors talking to customers on google voice about their computer problems and cable tv and modem problems the house smells like woodsmoke, but I have a fan and hepa filter going in my room and it is air tight so it is warm because of the tech in there. The leasing office sends out emails telling us we may get evacuated and to prepare to go. They also tell us that if we don't remove food from our refrigerators we could be charged for refrigerator damage if there is a power outage. A weird concern. No one I know will be emptying their fridge if the fire is close by.
On my break from tech support I take my dog downstairs and play with her favorite tug toys. I get calls when a local tv station goes offline. This happens frequently. I put in workorders with the contractor but I doubt this will get resolved by the weekend. I spend my day doing work, and my coworker asks over chat if I know where he can get a hepa air filter. I happen to have a second one which I have been saving as a backup so I leave it outside in my driveway in a trash bag so he can drive over and get it. I try to hold my breath as I run outside.
all day long helicopters go over my house to the landing field nearby and to get water and fuel. They are big copters, the kind the military uses for transport and they fly low. The dog is no longer concerned. This has been happening for a few days and she is tired of barking
I am excited for the weekend so I can play with daz studio. I can't leave the house, so I have a stack of iced coffee, and I hope my Indian paneer arrives in the mail tomorrow so I can enjoy it, I love paneer. I cooked pizza for dinner for the family and debating letting my dog outside to pee, since she hates the pee pads.
If someone should design a diving bell head gear oxygen thing so i can walk to the mailbox water plants, and run to the garage it would be awesome. Maybe a giant bubble. My family discussed this idea over dinner.
I mean, part of the issue is, the "Welp, climate change, (meh/shrug)" view.
Yes, the climate is changing, but aggressive fire suppression tactics create future issues (as does the lack of controlled burns). We need more fire and less overgrowth.
It's not just the climate change. We've disrupted the fire cycle.
*big hugs* Enjoy the family and try not to stress. Thankfully you have internet, food, and coffee (it's harder to get through this crap if you're also cut off from the outside world, hungry, and/or going through caffeine withdrawals). Try and watch or listen to something fun or relaxing and keep your spirits up. As they say "This too shall pass".
Some groups do not believe in coincidences or accidents, some groups are nuts too but hay. If we all thought the same the world would be a boring place.
The one good thing [trying to stay positive] of events this year is most if not all folk should have a mask. Masks are great for filtering pollen, dust, ash and sand ... all of which are major health concerns this year.
Eye drops come in real handy too esp. as we do not all have goggles yet. Gee, if we all could follow 'all' the advice given in the world/on the 'Net, we'd all be looking pretty SteamPunked by now lol ...
lol Yeah, the ash and smoke particles from the fire had me coughing a lot earlier today. So I've taken to wearing one of our covid masks inside just so that I can stop coughing - it's helping a lot as I haven't coughed since. Feels funny wearing a face mask at home but it's better than the alternative.
There isn't a one size fits all situation. Usually it is humans and their activities that start fires. California burns because we have wet winters which creates fuel that burns in the fire season.
Controlled burns are noxious and hard on citizenry in the burn zones. Goats are a better solution and are implemented in some areas. Plus animal life is not list when goats are used. Unfortunately not enough goats to chomp through all the wilds of California. But some cities,have goats and herders on retainer.
last year california had a lot of rain. That made a lot of weeds and brush. That is what is being fueled by the lightning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=115&v=k9IfHDi-2EA&feature=emb_logo
...that map reminds me of how the Northwest looked back in 2017-2018 Oregon alone had 36 uncontained fires burning at the same time during a summer when we had 33 days of temperatures over 90° (several above 100°) in Portland. In an average summer we usually see between is 7 - 10 days of sweltering temperatures. In 2018, There were major fires ranging from Eastern British Columbia through Washington State, Oregon, down to California. It was as if the entire west coast was on fire and it was easily seen from space.
One of the worst in 2018 was one started by a couple careless teenagers in a forested areas along the Columbia River just east of Portland when they tossed fireworks into dry grass and brush. Within mere minutes the fire that resulted grew so quick that it appeared to almost "explode" into an inferno. A number of hikers off guard and were threatened with being trapped by the flames. That fire burned for nearly a week, darkening the skies in Portland and on several days I could see the ash falling through the trees in the city centre.
I feared this year would be bad because we red flag warnings were issued back in April, but then had a reasonably wet May and June. We've been under another red flag alert since July but so far nothing major...yet. There's been little cloud cover and conditions haven't been conducive to creating thunderheads, thus we haven't had the dry lightning storms like California has been getting.
The last couple days we had a little rain but not enough to really do anything though. Fortunately temps here are forecast to be in the 70s all next week (at least for now).
Take care and stay safe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=115&v=k9IfHDi-2EA&feature=emb_logo
Boy, we would LOVE to take some of your water!
I heard on the radio that during the recent thunderstorms we had approximately 12,000 lightning strikes in 72 hours. The last update was that we currently have 560 wildfires burning in California. I had heard a while back that there are 102 million dead trees that they need to remove.
I had also heard that there was some fire damage to the giant redwoods. I'm not too worried because those trees have bark like concrete, and their canopy is 300-400 feet high. Also, redwood seeds actually need to be burned in order to germinate.
I'm currently doing some work for the Census - I can only take about 3 hours outside - the standard Covid masks really don't protect against smoke at all. I don't have an N-95 (not even sure if we can buy them yet). Maybe I'll just stay home for a couple of days.
Just a reminder - if you have Census people knocking at your door - just fill out the stupid thing and we'll go away.