Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

Not near my home and I'm in no danger, but the wind is blowing a lot of smoke this way and the smell of smoke outside my house is very strong.

https://twitter.com/CALFIRECZU

https://twitter.com/CALFIRECZU/status/12...1584933888

This webcam timelapse probably explains why we are smelling smoke over a wide area

https://twitter.com/GreatWinter2017/stat...9057761280

https://twitter.com/CHPscrz/status/1295961715922751488

https://twitter.com/sccounty

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8...g-complex/

There are lightening caused fires all over northern California. There's a big one east of San Jose and one up in Solano county. That one seems to be advancing aggressively in a 2-3 mile wide front and rush evacuations are being ordered east of Lake Berryessa and west of Winters.

https://twitter.com/CAFireScanner

Lots of very nice farmland is burning in Solano. Evacuations in Vacaville.

https://twitter.com/VacavilleDist

There are dangerous fires in Napa and Sonoma too. There's fire all around Lake Berreyessa, both east and west.

Edit: Evacuation warnings for the Russian River (a popular north bay resort area). Many evacuation orders (not warnings) in neighboring Napa county. The whole northwest quadrant of Vacaville (a large suburban city in Solano county) has been/is being evacuated. Unknown number of structures have burned, mostly rural farm properties.

https://twitter.com/sullyfoto/status/129...6477016065

The fire east of San Jose has grown from 35,000 acres to 85,000 in the last few hours with 4% containment. It isn't burning towards the city, but threatens Lick Observatory which I believe is under an evacuation warning.

Closer to me, the wind seems to be blowing the fire away from where I live and it's advancing in the other direction. Smoke was thick around sunrise, but it's slowly clearing.

But the fires are continuing to grow and aren't being so considerate of those living downwind. So far most of the fire is in rural/exurban areas and hasn't destroyed lots of structures. But word of mouth reports of structures destroyed in Solano.

Glad it dodged your turf, perhaps by a less narrow distance than it did SS a couple of years ago.

Since the cause is thunderstorm slash lightning, at least the local public utilities there probably don't have to worry about litigation. Companies do need to stay abreast of all the excessive, expensive, as well as kooky new policies that are driving businesses out of California to Texas. So they don't get caught with their pants down and held responsible for whatever _X_. That includes anticipating the extra costs ahead of time so that they've got the capacity to fulfill the requirements without having to degrade safety maintenance, etc.

(Aug 19, 2020 06:11 PM)C C Wrote: [ -> ]Glad it dodged your turf perhaps by a less narrow distance than it did SS a couple of years ago.

Not nearly that close, thank heavens. It could still turn nasty though if the winds shift. Which they have a habit of doing. Smoke almost disappeared this afternoon, but is making a comeback. As I write this my window is open and I keep doing a doubletake when I take a breath and smell smoke. I have to keep telling myself that I expect it and the electrical in my house isn't shorting out or something.

Current situation map for the CZU fire is here.

https://www.smco.community.zonehaven.com/ 

Quote:Since the cause is thunderstorm slash lightning

A very Western style thunderstorm, hardly any rain, just sprinkles basically, but lots of lightening flashes and booms. Dry lightening that lit the dry brush wherever it hit. That's the most prevalent natural cause of fires in the Western US. Apparently those conditions were widespread over tens of thousands of square miles and started hundreds of fires, most of them small.

So CalFire and all of their resources (they are like an army) are stretched to the max. They have to send firefighters and equipment everywhere. People listening to the scanners hear units almost begging for aircraft and backup. Stuff like this, #WalbridgeFire Units are losing the line they were trying to hold. They're going to attempt to hold Skaggs Springs Rd but "it's a shitty plan"

https://twitter.com/CAFireScanner

https://twitter.com/SonomaScanner

Quote:at least the local public utilities there probably don't have to worry about litigation.

They were already struggling, due to the recent heat wave. Everyone had their air conditioning on and the 'ISO' (Independent System Operator) that runs California's electric grid declared rolling blackouts to reduce the load. My power was off Sunday night for about four hours. (Just like a third-world country.)

---

If anyone wants to watch the fires in the Sonoma/Napa area in almost real time, there's a whole network of webcams, seemingly on every mountaintop. I guess that these have replaced those old forest fire lookout towers that they used to have. They may or may not show much at night.

http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/in...&v=81e004f

Here's webcams down closer to where I live

http://www.alertwildfire.org/southeastba...?v=81e002f

Here's more about the people who operate the webcams. They were started by the University of Nevada at Reno along with the US Forest Service and initially put into service around Lake Tahoe to catch wildfires just starting and to help firefighters plan their operations. It was so successful that UC San Diego and the U. of Oregon came on board.

http://www.alertwildfire.org/about.html

And here's the brave Mt. Vaca webcam which seems to have given its life. It's stopped updating new images and here's the last one it sent before it became unresponsive. It kept doing its duty till the end.

http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/in...&v=81e004f

I don’t know about your area but the lightning storms were crazy here. There was a little 12-acre fire near my house but I think it’s contained now. We also had a few earthquakes that really rocked my house. A 4.0 and then a 3.6 aftershock.

My friend has a ranch south of here. All the rancher sort of stick together to help one another. They’ve been taking turns keeping watch. We can’t figure out what happened but one of her horses’ upper lip was completely torn off. We don’t know if it freaked out during the storms and got it caught in barbed wire or if it was a coyote or something. 

I heard that the wineries in the dry creek area are in danger. I was just there a couple of days ago. If it doesn’t burn down, and if you’re ever in this area, there’s a little country market, "The Dry Creek Market". They make the best sandwiches. All the ingredients are fresh. That area is absolutely gorgeous. I hope it doesn’t burn. I spend most of my time going back and forth between here and the coast. I’ve taken every single road. They’re all beautiful but I think that Skaggs Springs to Stewarts Point is one of my favorites.

I was heading out towards Occidental to hit the Bohemian Hwy and onto the 116 on my way out to the coast the other day. I passed an elementary school. A mother had her daughter standing in front of the school sign taking first day of school pictures. She forgot to take off her mask and was running back to hand it off to her mother. Do you what went through my mind?

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

Our homeowner’s insurance rates keep rising and rising. I love it here, but a lot of my friends have left, and more and more are thinking about doing the same.

No smoke where I live this morning. One would almost think the fires are over. But thy aren't.

The wind is just blowing the closest fire south into Santa Cruz County.

The video in the tweet below is the Santa Cruz mountains north of Santa Cruz. There are more evacuations in this heavily wooded area, just a few hours ago in Felton. Boulder Creek was evacuated yesterday. CalFire currently has their base of operations in Boulder Creek, which is still unburned.

https://twitter.com/CALFIRECZU/status/12...7193826304

These places are very rustic and woodsy and are less than 20 miles from San Jose. UC Santa Cruz in the other direction. The definition of 'exurban' I guess. Santa Cruz county Sheriff says that roughly 28,000 people have been evacuated in this area.

Turning to the SCU Lightning Complex Fires east of San Jose, there are tales of heroism.

I'm particularly happy to tell the story of the San Luis Obispo City Fire Department that responded as mutual aid as part of Cal Fire. Well, the SLO firefighters were assigned to defending Lick Observatory, a major astronomical observatory on Mt. Hamilton east of San Jose. Fire was approaching the observatory bigtime and the SLO firemen had to move fast.

https://twitter.com/SLO_City_Fire/status...4118744065

https://twitter.com/SLO_City_Fire/status...1432837120 

https://twitter.com/SLO_City_Fire/status...9476224007

The flames surrounded them. The only road out was impassable. They were fighting not only to save the observatory but to save themselves. In 100 degree daytime heat. With heavy equipment. On steep slopes. (Photos from the Lick Observatory webcams.)



And they succeeded!!! The fire burned around and not through the observatory!



The photograph below is an interesting telescope and I'm glad it survived. It's the APF Automated Planet Finder telescope, a robot telescope that looks at lots of stars all on its own, does preliminary data analysis and alerts the human astronomers about which targets are good candidates for having exoplanets.



The building on the ridge in the distance in the webcam photo above is the old main building, built in the late 1800's and very Victorian steam-punkish in its way. It's mostly a visitors center/astronomy education thing today. I've actually peered through a small (to them, huge to me) 12" refractor telescope in that small dome visible on the right. (It's no longer there and has been replaced in that smaller dome by a "small" reflecting telescope that's still used for research, since it has the same size fittings as their bigger 120 inch reflector and they use it for testing photographic instruments before putting them on the bigger telescope.)

The big dome on the old building (obscured behind the APF in the photo above) houses a steampunk wonder, a huge refracting telescope installed in 1888, one of the largest in the world. (Third largest ever built, second largest that still exists.) It's still there, though I don't think that they use it much for research any more. I've seen it when I was visiting, but couldn't look through it. Just from the looks of it, I can imagine them examining the canals on Mars.

After this, I bet they clear that particular pinnacle of Mount Hamilton till it looks like a bald head. Who thought it was a bright idea to keep flammable woodlands growing around an observatory? It's supposed to be an astronomy work facility -- not another spot along countless scenic trails for gawkers and tourists.

New Evacuation warnings have been issued, for some pretty high profile areas. They include Scotts Valley (former home of Netflix, Seagate Technology and Borland) and the University of California at Santa Cruz campus. So apparently there's some fear that the wind might blow the fire down out of the hills into more populated places on the Santa Cruz outskirts.

https://twitter.com/CALFIRECZU/status/12...8038513664

Edit: The Scotts Valley and UCSC evacuation warnings are now orders. There are also new evacuation orders on the north side of the fire, in Pescadero (a small farming community on the seashore), San Gregorio (a popular state beach in non-covid times), LaHonda (a small slightly rowdy resort community) and Skylonda (a road junction with houses back in the woods).

Cal Fire says, "An Evacuation Order is issued when the area is determined to be an immediate threat to life and property."

(CalFire photos)

(Aug 20, 2020 08:10 PM)C C Wrote: [ -> ]After this, I bet they clear that particular pinnacle of Mount Hamilton till it looks like a bald head. Who thought it was a bright idea to keep flammable woodlands growing around an observatory? It's supposed to be an astronomy work facility -- not another spot along countless scenic trails for gawkers and tourists.

Like me...

Back in the 1800's, it was pretty bare. Just scrubby brush (looks like California chaparral) and little of that around the first buildings, including the big dome for the giant refractor. Note the horse stables. Back then they rode horses or horse-drawn carriages up the mountain. No paved road, just a dirt track. (It snows up there in the winter, so maybe that's snow.)

But it does look like all the trees are more recent additions and perhaps aren't even native plants. Those 1880's old-timers might have had a better appreciation of wildfires.

Because we enjoyed it so much last time...



Some extraordinary photos from around Davenport on the Santa Cruz coast.

https://patch.com/california/santacruz/c...rie-photos

Evacuating Boulder Creek, a small town in the hills north of Santa Cruz

https://twitter.com/kara_capaldo/status/...8447765504

Status update CZU Fire (north of Santa Cruz)

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8...g-complex/

Status update SCU Fire (east of San Jose)

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8...g-complex/

Status update LNU Fire (Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Solano, Yolo counties)

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8...walbridge/

And there have been some reports of looting in the evacuated areas and the Sheriffs have increased their patrols and busted some.

https://twitter.com/SantaCruzSO1/status/...6394523650