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

lol no I didn't, it's been a long week. thanks for the reality check.

I'm afraid to even post this but it hasn't been too bad in the Eugene area so far, people even 30 minutes away have seen a lot more smoke

yeah, wasn't trying to be a jerk, was just a little '?' at yr response. when it gets about 100 is when it's time to start really worrying about outdoor activity.

For reference, near where I used to live in Siskiyou County, California, the current AQI is 317.

sleeve, you do realize that many cities go above 50 on a regular basis, right? unless you have asthma or other related health problems, you're probably fine tbqh.

― heyy nineteen, that's john belushi (the table is the table), Saturday, August 21, 2021 1:53 PM (three days ago)

and we can get into the significant disparity of areas within cities ... like West Oakland vs. Montclair

A coworker had some kind of airbnb booking in South Lake Tahoe and just called off her trip - apparently it was a no-refund deal.

I feel pretty certain you can argue for a refund if all the roads are closed and local authorities are begging people to stay the f%@k away, and the air quality is the worst on the planet.

more than stay away, there are mandatory evacuations for all of south lake tahoe. and gridlock traffic trying to get out of tahoe basin.

https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/08/30/caldor-fire-latest-updates/

yikes

its crazy

a few of my coworkers have family and/or vacation homes up there, just hoping everyone can get out safely

meanwhile there are people driving to burning man from California ...

they have a chance of becoming burning men themselves (let's cross our fingers)

Hmmm, maybe this is where my coworker booked her stay... I see SO many of their ads on youtube:

VRBO refusing to offer direct refunds to people in Tahoe Basin, customers say

Robertson said the property he booked through VRBO, a short-term rental booking site, refused to give him a refund for his $4,000 stay, even as neighboring counties began evacuating and the Air Quality Index spiked into the 400s — an incredibly unhealthy range...

VRBO said it recommends travelers "consider buying travel insurance that provides the right coverage for their needs to help protect their vacation plans."

Apparently they recommend dealing with the hosts themselves, which begs the question: why use VRBO at all?

THIS is the patio where you will die of smoke inhalation
THIS is the customer service call where you will yell at someone you don't know for not refunding your vacation booking

i'm schadenfreuding at the vacation home class and you can't stop me

the local hospitality industry workers living in the trailer park around the corner otoh, i hope they can get out of there

My boss's boss has a 2nd home up there, but she says they rarely go... the drive is too far, traffic, etc. etc.

On the other hand, my cousin's husband has an old cabin that his family bought in the forties, I hope it's safe as they've done a bunch of work on it the last couple years

my friend has a great little house in the tahoe keys that has been in her family since the 60’s (staying there is like travelling back in time) - i would guess the house will be safe since it’s so close to the water but with a fire of this magnitude you cant assume anything

Yeah, I remember the Malibu fire of 10+ years ago where the flames raced down and jumped PCH, burning down houses that were right on the beach.

Yeah, fires jump roads, canyons, rivers— the fire that burned up Paradise a few years back jumped the Feather River canyon, and it's actually quite wide and deep in the area where it did so. I still think about my favorite swimming hole up there.

The awful fire in Santa Rosa a few years back was caused by the wind-driven flames jumping four lanes of Hwy 101 and torching a leafy green suburb surrounded by lawns.. Nowhere is safe

Yeah, I was in Berkeley for a conference during the last few days of that fire, it was...horrible, just abysmal air quality, and here we were— a load of writers and queers taking smoke breaks despite the AQI. I quit smoking soon after.

I remember looking at the before and after pictures of that Santa Rosa fire and being confused. How could this happen here, it's not a brushy area out in the boondocks?

An ex's family home was in that neighborhood (Coffey Park) and burned to the ground... her father never really recovered. Took to a recliner at his sister's house and never really got up again (I think the official cause of death was a stroke).

It was a freak thing, because it was a flat, green, leafy neighborhood, like something out of a Spielberg film... definitely not brushy & hilly. Unfortunately wind-driven embers can get up in the rafters and I think that's what happened to a lot of those homes.

Yeah, I was in Berkeley for a conference during the last few days of that fire, it was...horrible, just abysmal air quality, and here we were— a load of writers and queers taking smoke breaks despite the AQI.

was that the day the sky was orange all day long? ... I smoked, but didn't do any physical labor ...

AQI of 126 today in gene OR, good times

*Eugene

careful with that axe, gene

Sorry sleeve, Oakland is very nice today! Only a little over 70 ... both in AQI and temperature

Sarahell, I don't recall the skies. They were quite yellow. But the fire we were talking about was in 2017…

Smoke from the Sierra fires advanced on Los Angeles this morning like it was a goddamn mothership

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E__6AJ3VIA0CGum.jpg

I saw this at lunch and thought, "That looks like smoke but I don't smell a fire, hope I don't have Covid."

thirty years ago today:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_firestorm_of_1991

looking like northern California's fire season might end this week. fingers crossed.

yes

now we will have flood season

boulder, colorado, december 30 2021

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/30/weather/colorado-wildfires/index.html

"Marshall fire explained: How we got 115 mph winds in Boulder County on a December winter day"
https://www.denverpost.com/2021/12/31/marshall-fire-explained-firestorm-colorado-weather/

ever earlier

Eleven large wildfires are currently burning across the Southwest and Southern Plains, with some 8 million U.S. residents under fire alerts. https://t.co/6plChJvQcf

— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) April 21, 2022

The entire southwestern US is in severe drought. Still.

very windy and extremely hot today in slc.

so far no fires but it just feels bad, you know

did you see https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/climate/salt-lake-city-climate-disaster.html?

yes

paywalled though

the word that comes to mind is 'desertification'

Alaska is on fire.

https://fire.airnow.gov/#

not great

hope my friends in Oakridge are OK, they got an evac order

i have a hunch that this year we're gonna get epic flooding then epic fires.

It’s El Niño so it’s certainly going to be warmer

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/471/227/dd0.png

thread is about wildfires not flooding but i need to put this somewhere

29" SWE. As Utah officially surpasses the estimated 1952 levels, those concerned with flooding can learn more about risks and other state resources by going to the @UtahDPS emergency management page: https://t.co/gfkjF2yFlE #utwx pic.twitter.com/jHQQ62QUXr

— NRCS Utah (@NRCS_Utah) April 4, 2023