Cali. fires, how bad can it get?
 

I sit here in my easy chair in no-nothing Indiana and look at the total loss of everything that families lived with and for, for years. Now all gone in a hour. I can't imagine the pain and the future these people have ahead of them. Prayers and thoughts go out to each and all of them. There might be a pelican there too.

It is hard to believe. We are about 60 miles south from there and the smoke level is getting pretty bad. My son lives in Marin County but at this point is south enough to be safe. I'm assuming there are a lot of Pelicans near or in the fire area. The current efforts are almost all addressing saving lives, there is still not much fire line containment. On the news they mentioned 22 major fires in the area now. In many places the Internet is difficult to get on. Maybe some closer to the fires can give us an update when they can. Certainty they have other things on their mind. Best wishes to all affected by the CA fires.

I heard that the wind is supposed to pick up in the next couple of days. Not good.

We were under the smoke cloud the other from the fires east of us.
This is a piece of ash I picked up in our front yard.
With ash this big flying around it's no wonder those fires took out whole neighborhoods.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1507771381.JPG

Our back patio was covered with ash like I've never seen with all the other fires we've had in the past.

Terrible situation. Fires have been part of the area ecology for 1000's of years. A risk they take.

Cali fires of. 130,000 acres takes large amount of structure. Last year Oklahoma had 400,000 acres burned. Far more rural area. Add in the Texas and Kansas parts of the fires and more than 1,000,000 acres burned.

Mother Nature can be a *****.

Very bad.

Wet winter, so there is lots of fuel, been dry for a long time, so the fuel is ready to light off. With the high winds, a little fire turns into an inferno in a hurry.

A couple years back Alberta had some serious fires, almost took out an entire town. This year B.C had unbelievable fires, and it always amazes me how few people fight them and how with all the tech in the world we are still so bad at stopping raging wildfires.

Stay safe CA

Fires and water....mother nature scoffs at our efforts. Smokey da bear was FOS....

Stay safe is right!!!

I'm packed and ready to blast out of here again. The unknown is what's kicking my brain down. Sleeping with one eye open. The locals are all over the place with the info n

I'm effen stressed bad. Like I'm waiting for the other foot to drop

Can't imagine what it's like for ya Cliff....
Hoping for the best....don't take any chances bro....just not worth it!

Be safe...

All we have so far is the heavy smoke. I repeat, our home is open to ya'll.

Cousin is in west Sonoma. She evacuated a few hours ago. Not a rural home.

Except redwoods once covered the coastline for thousands of millennia before the 21st century.
(not firematch Australian Eucalyptus.)

Tall conifers blocking the sea wind. Making the fog drop there. The bark heavy with fireproof tanins. Their roots grow deep to prevent mudslides and flooding. They soak up water and create a massive impenetrable heat sink range beneath the surface which no fire can ignite anywhere. A balance between earth and air.

But those California redwoods are nearly gone.
And so mankind attempts to re-create all the benefits of lost nature and weeps in the meantime.

All I can say is my heart goes out to you all affected, and the best of luck with the wind and fire going the other way.

The winds that cause problems this time of year aren't coastal onshore winds but rather originate from the dry inland basins and move offshore.

Best wishes to you all, be smart stay safe.

Things are looking bad again today.

This satellite photo shows the winds coming from the East, which is 180 degrees from normal.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1507824558.jpg

We were under evacuation emergency on Tuesday night (Pocket Fire - Geyserville). So we preemptively packed up the car preparing to go. On Wednesday morning with strengthening winds, we did not want to risk having fires merge and trap our routes to the south or north - so we left. We are very fortunate to have resources and good friends that will accommodate our scary dogs in Southern California. We know at least a dozen that have lost homes, and dozens more that will have their livelihoods effected.

I posted on FB the other day that, "This isn't over yet." Despite an amazing show of force and coordination by the first responders (thank you, thank you, thank you), it's all up to a capricious mother nature, wind, and chance as to what happens next.

Stay Safe.

The fires are not on the coastline. They are in inland areas that always had sparse redwood coverage and a lot of oak and scrub coverage. Besides, redwood forests burn too. I grew up in a redwood forest and all the old trees have fire scars. In 1995 12,000 acres of redwood forest burned at Pt. Reyes, right along the coast. It's usually cool and damp along the coast, but not always. A few weeks ago here on the coast it was 96 degrees with very low humidity. That would have been a bad day for a fire in our local redwood forests.