Rolling Western U.S. Is On Fire / Wildfires Thread

Bonny Doon, SantaCruz County, CA
37.1004, -122.1410
2618 ft above sea level, facing northhttps://t.co/6jWU2cuETC pic.twitter.com/axwBZEtg7r

— California Landscapes (@CALandscapeBot) August 21, 2020

The LNU and SCU lightning complexes are now the #2 and #3 largest wildfires on the books and the president is threatening to refuse aid because we didn't "clean our floors"

fire burned thru the Ventana condor zone where at least 1 baby condor was nexting 2 days ago, so that's a drag

Okay this 2019 story is too long but it's good. https://story.californiasunday.com/gone-paradise-fire

Cities founded in the fire-prone frontier by anti-government types that didn't want to be told how to build (proper infrastructure, firebreaks etc.)

Real estate has been the main wealth generator for a while, "Selling out to a developer was the only retirement plan most farmers knew."

"What was once sparse is now densely packed with pine, fir, cedar, and manzanita. A forest that supported 64 trees an acre in pre-settlement times now boasted 160 trees an acre ... 'I don't think we could have managed the forests any worse.'"

"as Wilson and his staff studied the fires more closely, he could see that their oddly linear pattern of ignition clusters corresponded to major electrical power lines."

Forestry management and fire prevention - prescribed burns, reducing fuel load - curtailed in favor of military-style firefighting.

"To justify its high costs, [Cal Fire] had to figure out a way to make itself essential throughout the year. This was how it evolved into a 24/7 provider of emergency services to the sprawling mountain communities ... instead of trying to slow down the suburbanization of forestlands, Wilson said, the department served the growth — to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year in funding."

PG&E and a Public Utilities Commission that's not equipped or inclined to regulate it

Yet again, a baby gender reveal party sparks a wildfire:

2020: A gender reveal sparked a wildfire in California that's grown to 7,000 acres
2020: A gender reveal party ignited a 10-acre brush fire in Florida, fire officials say
2017: Officials release video from gender reveal party that ignited a 47,000-acre wildfire in Arizona

bonus gender reveal combustion:
2019: Partygoers thought they'd built a clever gender reveal device. It turned out to be a deadly pipe bomb
2019: Australian gender reveal party goes wrong as car bursts into flames

Oregon is collectively holding its breath for the next 48 hours

https://www.kptv.com/weather/blog/extreme-fire-weather-next-48-hours-includes-damaging-wind-for-some/article_9f381716-f0be-11ea-9a76-47427495df5f.html

View of the Bobcat Fire from my street last night. Tonight is the same.

#BobcatFire over Sierra Madre right now + couple hours of ashfall on my car. pic.twitter.com/zXc0ZDmL0c

— Chris Barrus (@quartzcity) September 7, 2020

Here's a timelapse from inception, from a Mt Wilson cam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX49jfIAJwI&feature=emb_logo

or search this on youtube.

Bobcat Fire Time-Lapse from Mt. Wilson

Christ! Doesn't take much does it? Hope y'all are breathing ok.
Over the past ~3 weeks in SF I've figured out that anything above 70 on Purple Air's AQandU setting starts bothering my throat/lungs so I let that dictate whether I sweat it out in my hotbox of an apartment or open the windows and take a walk. It hit a hundred degrees yesterday while the AQI was around 90 and I'd never been more grateful to have a box fan and the electricity to power it.

Friend of mine is posting live AQI updates from Eugene ... 538, 560, 593, 607 ...

I don't even care if it actually retards the actual fire - they can hike my taxes if it means I get to be treated more frequently to these sweet jet dump Action Tweets

The #ValleyFire currently has eight air tankers assigned to the incident. When the retardant is dumped it can be a spectacular sight. Video taken 9/6/20 at 5:14 p.m. near Alpine pic.twitter.com/rwyXFpEEbD

— CAL FIRE/SAN DIEGO COUNTY FIRE (@CALFIRESANDIEGO) September 7, 2020

I could watch that cherry red retardant get dumped from that screaming sky bird all day long baby

does it smell great in the morning?

on the morning after a beet salad dinner hahahaa

I'm gonna go ahead and assume that what is essentially the opposite of napalm smells like Code Red Mountain Dew and say that yes, yes it does

but, key thing ... do you surf???

nah, too dangerous! I boogie board for fifteen minutes once every quarter-century, but that's it. beach schmeach, that's what I say

@MikeNiccoABC7 @DrewTumaABC7 These were from Willits and Covelo, respectively, around 2:30 today. Ukiah is as dark as 10pm would be but my camera won’t pick it up. It’s insane here. Apocalypse-like. pic.twitter.com/sAUPvRbaa6

— AlmightyAce (@AlmightyAcey) September 8, 2020

lukas, I'm in Eugene. It's apocalyptic. We're packing emergency kits tonight.

numerous friends who live less than an hour away have had to evacuate

all hell broke loose all over western Oregon last night and today. we are OK, but our neighborhood is thick with trees and all it would take is a power line sparking and that could change fast.

Ugh, sorry

possible water outages projected for tonight in addition to power outages, stocking up now

glad I have a serious solar array and battery backup for our freezer

sorry sleeve and Aimless, this sucks

lost power for about 10 hours last night, recently went through a very extreme and awful respiratory illness and remain in recovery for that, so sitting in a hot box terrified of the smoke with no ability to move any air around in here was a real anxiety experience i'd like to not go through again for a bit

What with huge masses of home grown smoke and more wildfire smoke able to travel down from WA and up from CA, I have the idea that when it comes to smoky air the ordeal is only beginning for most western Oregonians.

Speaking of wildfire smoke, this is a satellite photo of NW Oregon today:
https://www.oregonhikers.org/forum/download/file.php?id=76887&t=1

Sympathy for those living in the shadow of the pyrocumulus, from hurricane alley.

Daniel Swain @Weather_West is a great follow for those interested in satellite animations of this.

hmm yes that particular satellite image probably came from either NASA's MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Aqua or Terra satellites. I do believe one of the two recently came back online. The image would be preferable if the heat-sensitive filters had been applied, but I understand Aimless is more of a humanities major. One would have to wonder what the post-burn EVI or NDVI value differential would be for the affected AOI...

wait is burrito outing himself as a Sanpaku sock

FUCK forgot to change usernames

Burrito already outed as dusty crophopper upthread

no, you're that, what I am is the Cheech Marin car from Cars (2006), which btw is "Ramone," a 1959 Chevrolet Impala Lowrider, which btw is racist

this is the pixar content the board craves

best wishes to everybody in the path of this horribleness <3

@AlmightyAcey's photos are surreal

the northeast part of Sierra Madre here (along with all the other foothill cities) just went to voluntary evacuation - apparently they're expecting a wind shift on the Bobcat Fire in a day or two. Fingers crossed for everyone.

I know we keep using the word "apocalyptic" but here's some truly terrifying footage of the Bear Fire near Chico, which was reported at ~12,000 acres last night and has exploded overnight to over 250,000 acres. Just unfathomable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvyhWTjk6Qw

According to a press conference with the Oregon governor and top officials, they barely have the resources to manage orderly evacuations and try to keep people's houses from burning down (if that). Several hundred thousand people are under some level of Evacuation Alert and many thousands have already been given Level 3 notices and been directed to evacuation checkpoints. More than one small town has been largely destroyed along a 50 MILE LONG fire zone along highway 22.

My entire county (third most populated in Oregon) is under Level 1, 2, or 3. We're at level 1 and probably (?) ok. But it's anxious.

Christ. Good luck.

well I pulled two crates of LPs out of 4000 to take with me, working on a box of 45s now

I hear the wind is reversing tomorrow in Lane County, good news

thinking of you all. this is hellish.

<3 to all. I lived in Eugene for 3 years and just now scanning headlines in the R-G, I felt sick to my stomach, so many places that mean a lot to me in trouble, evacuating, or under threat

next year, when it's time to get back out into the forests and mountains around here, there will be a time to do some grieving about all the beautiful natural places that will have been reduced to charcoal. meanwhile, this is a human catastrophe and that is dominating the foreground of most of our thoughts.

Thinking of all who are evacuating and all who've lost family and homes...

My old place of work in the Southern Humboldt hills (iykwim) evacuated today. Some of the most beautiful country I've ever had the pleasure of living and working in. I really hope the place gets spared.

My daughter's group home is currently in Level 2 and in the process of evacuating. As luck would have it, there is an empty group home they will be able to move into, outside the evacuation zone. It was all prepared to get up and running as a new group home when the covid-19 lockdown started and all new admissions and transfers were cancelled until further notice.

My stomach is churning, in spite of knowing she will be safe. My emotions don't know it even though my intellect is pretty certain.

btw, our home is still in a level 1 zone. Yesterday we identified some possible friends and family who'd take us in if necessary. The 'natural' winds have died down quite a bit, but big fires can create their own winds.

Ugh, that's a lot. Hope the wind stays on your side.

reports of gun battles between residents and looters in the Blue River area, Route 126 in Oregon