California fires

[IndependentlyPoor]

Some good news this morning. The Mt. Wilson web cam is still up. This photo from a few minutes ago.

The URL is
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm#imagetop

Don't be dismayed if it times-out. They are probably getting zillions of hits right now.

 

[ls99]

To the electronic pollution of Mt Wilson, add smoke.

Wonder how many automobiles would it take to equal the pollution created by the inferno? I suspect banning all cars in California for six months would not make up for the fire caused air pollution.

Hope the observatory survives.

 

[ronin]

Eyes and sinuses have been burning last few days. How about those pyrocumulus clouds forming over the blaze every day? Looks like a nuclear blast. At least there is a little more humidity this morning. That's something I guess.

 

[Martha]

My sister says it is the worst she has seen in the 20 years she has lived in the LA area.

 

[Poundkey]

How about those pyrocumulus clouds forming over the blaze every day? Looks like a nuclear blast.

Talking with my son by phone last night, he was commenting about the unusual clouds. He described them the same way......as looking like a nuclear blast. He said it's not smokey at his location. Westlake Village.

 

[ronin]

Experts credit decades of fire prevention efforts for the tremendous buildup of explosive fuel. Fire is the natural climax in our local ecological succession, but obviously humans have screwed that up pretty well. I live here so I guess I'm part of the problem, but I'm a flat lander eastern valley dweller that lives on the fault line and not in the canyon chaparral.

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

Uh-oh



This photo from just a few minutes ago.

Edited to add that I just noticed a comment on the website explaining that the smoke is from backfires set by the firefighters. Maybe not so bad after all. Let's hope.

 

[bbbamI]

I remember how our skies looked when there were so many fires in Mexico one year.

 

[bright eyed]

My sister says it is the worst she has seen in the 20 years she has lived in the LA area.

She probably means the immediate LA area! As the fires last year nearly burnt my little city down!

But it is really bad generally - fires to the North, West and southeast...

We've been spared much of the smoke (thank goodness for the wind patterns) but this morning it was overcast (w/ smoke not clouds) and ashes were snowing down...

W/ a kid w/ asthma, I hope it goes away soon!!

 

[Zoocat]

I am from LA originally and all my relatives lived in the Pasadena area right below the Angeles mountains. I heard that this area had not burned since the 1950s and I think this must be right because I don't ever remember a fire there. Dry and hot. Thank God for no Santa Ana winds.

Anyway, you would not BELIEVE all the haze we have in the Denver area from that Calif fire! http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13240245

We have health advisory alerts!

 

[Khan]

Smoke From Station Fire Blankets Southern California - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

 

[bright eyed]

Uggh, smokey, ashy, smokey ashy...cough cough...what are the long term health problems this will bring? short term health problems mostly grumpiness.

Oldbabe you just dashed my hopes of moving to CO to avoid this horribleness if we just will end up back in the smoke! booo hoo....

Kids haven't gone out to recess all week (thank goodness) but they are starting to go stir crazy.

Thank heavens there have been very little winds...the last rash of fires (last spring) were driven by the santa ana's and the winds were howling at the time - causing the fires to hopscotch a few miles in various directions - it was really really scary. This one was just driven by the decades of built up dry brush and hot hot hot temps (over 108 in some areas)...