NorCal on fire...

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Dave
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NorCal on fire...

Post by Dave »

Apparently, Nature decided to counterbalance all of the water that hurricanes have been dumping recently, by setting a torch to northern California. A large part of Napa is on fire, as are numerous other areas. Dry weather and high winds, and a big fuel load thanks to heavy plant growth from last winter's heavy rains, is not a good combination.

Much of the city of Santa Rosa has been evacuated. I put in a somewhat desperate call to some friends of mine who live just a block or two outside one of the evacuation zones... they're ok but are prepared to leave at any time. The fire is not right by them but there are big chunks of ash falling all around, power is out and cellphones aren't working. The neighborhood they used to live, and the property that they used to caretake, have been burned over... Joel saw the whole hill glowing bright red in a local TV video feed.

I promised to keep an eye on the Web and call their landline if I learn anything which means "get out of there Right Now!".

Pat was heading out the door to fill her gas tank, just in case. The cars are already packed.

>>gulp<<
Alkarii
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by Alkarii »

It's sounding more and more like California just doesn't want people living there.

Are all these fires started by people? You'd think by now people in California would know better than to have anything burning outside when it gets dry out there, so there has to be some other cause for at least some of these fires.
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GlytchMeister
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by GlytchMeister »

Honestly it's gotten to the point where you can't even fart in California without setting fire to an entire hillside.
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Atomic
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by Atomic »

Good luck and be safe!

Next come the torrential rains and mudslides. That's just how it works in SoCal.
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Dave
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by Dave »

Alkarii wrote:It's sounding more and more like California just doesn't want people living there.

Are all these fires started by people? You'd think by now people in California would know better than to have anything burning outside when it gets dry out there, so there has to be some other cause for at least some of these fires.
The causes are still listed as "under investigation". The big problem seems to have been the weather: dry "diablo" winds gusting at up to 70 MPH at times. Under these conditions, any ignition is likely to run wild immediately... you have almost no time to "knock it down" before it turns into a raging wall of flame. Unless you happen to have a full fire unit idling outside your door, all you can do is run, fast.

It's a fairly common weather pattern in southern California, but we do get it up here as well. Weather of this sort was a big contributor to the terrible Oakland fire in '91.

It would not surprise me if most of the sources of ignition of these fires are human-related in one way or another. A thrown cigarette butt, a careless campfire, a grease fire in a kitchen, sparks from somebody welding or soldering, a car crash which triggers a fire (or just a car driving into a field of dry grass and the hot catalytic converter touching off some flame). Power lines are also a problem... with high winds it's not uncommon for tree branches to hit the lines and spark off a fire... PG&E was heavily criticized and fined a few years ago for cutting back on their tree trimming / line clearing work to save money... one bad fire at least got started that way then.

My friend Joel in Santa Rosa said he'd heard reports that lightning had been seen, but wasn't sure if that was natural lightning, or arcing from power lines burning up.

These sorts of fire get started all the time... but with diablo winds blowing they get a lot bigger than usual, a lot faster. A fire that in one season would burn part of a building, instead spreads across an entire neighborhood or half of a city or 10,000 acres.

I have not heard any suggestions that arson was involved in any of these recent fire, although that is always a concern. :(. If some of this was arson... well, I know what my wife would say... she favors staking the arsonist out in the path of such a fire and letting nature take its course. :shock:
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TazManiac
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by TazManiac »

I'm on the other side, to the North, at this time, from where Dave is reporting from; Internet and Cell Service out past Willits is down for the most part- I am posting from the Library. (There is a huge crowd of folks here doing similar...). In fact the Library opened Monday for three hours just allow people access to loved ones and news info.

So far the main idea running is that most of the wide spread spots got started from a huge gust (70Mph+) of wind that knocked power lines down while still live; and then some of these seemingly small outbreaks met and joined together into what is know as a 'Complex'.

For a time Highway 101 was shut down but as of Tues 10Oct2017 is back up and open again. Caltrans and the CHP are recommending declining to travel unless really necessary.

More to follow...
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Dave
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by Dave »

Warrl
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by Warrl »

The area we summered in Montana was laden with smoke from mid-July to early September, with three large fires within 40 miles augmented by wind patterns that brought in smoke from 4 other states - but never directly threatened by any of the fires..

The area we're in now, in southwest Arizona, sometimes gets 85MPH wind gusts but it would be difficult to have a raging wildfire here as it's desert.

I think nature in California is just trying to get the residents to recognize reality. It's the legislature and the campus "intelligentsia" who want to get everyone who does so to leave the state.
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GlytchMeister
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by GlytchMeister »

Dude, people live in Australia. We built Phoenix (aka monument to the arrogance of man). We sent people to find the north and South Poles, and when they died of the cold, our solution was to send more people. We want to colonize mars (dead planet).

Humans are space orcs.

If Australia can't get rid of us, California hasn't got a chance. Australia has eucalyptus trees - in high heat, they produce a flammable vapor that can very nearly spontaneously combust.

California is just a bit dry. It's not depopulating any time soon.
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Warrl
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by Warrl »

GlytchMeister wrote:We want to colonize mars (dead planet).
The only reason I can think of for colonizing a gravity well as deep as Mars, but not deep enough to retain a good atmosphere, is if we find out that human gestation and infant development doesn't work properly in microgravity. Otherwise I'd much prefer the asteroids. And eventually other solar systems.
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Dave
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by Dave »

GlytchMeister wrote:If Australia can't get rid of us, California hasn't got a chance. Australia has eucalyptus trees - in high heat, they produce a flammable vapor that can very nearly spontaneously combust.
We've got those in California, too - imports of course.

A guy I knew was a fireman in San Francisco. He was called out to help deal with a fire on Angel Island, burning in a mixed stand of euc and poison oak.

They were told to evacuate people, and try to protect structures, but to stay strictly upwind and just let it burn itself out.
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lake_wrangler
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by lake_wrangler »

Somehow, cold winters seem like such a small price to pay, to live in Québec...
ShneekeyTheLost
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by ShneekeyTheLost »

Hell, we got Mesquite down here in Texas. Eucalyptus's slightly less toxic but more ornery cousin. You know, the one us crazy Texans love to smoke with? Well, there's a reason for that tradition.

First off, it's wildly invasive, I think it originated over in Africa or something, like Kudzu. And, like kudzu, it has a tendency to take over the neighborhood. Its roots also broadcast a toxin which tries to kill off any other vegetation in the area so they have the place all to themselves. Which is why Mesquite stands have very sparse grass growth (aside from, yanno, Texas and blistering heat that kills most grasses not specifically adapted to such conditions). There's a couple of grasses that have adapted to it, but it keeps away the other trees, which is the intent.

Second off, they are an extremely rapidly growing tree. Like faster than yellow pine. If the wood was worth building with (which it's really not. It's a softer wood than pine, and gnarly all to heck and back), it would be commercially grown as a lumber wood. As it is, it's just a 'trash tree'. They also spread like hell, which is one of the reasons they're so invasive.

Third off, it's got thorns. And we're not talking cute little thorns that you find on Rose bushes either. We're talking spikes that can grow to five or six inches in length. And they SHED them. You do *NOT* walk near a mesquite tree stand without heavy boots. Damn things are worse than nails in many ways. And have an annoying tendency to go septic way too damn quickly, what with it being a deep puncture wound to begin with.

The only good thing about 'em is that they don't do well in the cold, their root system tends to be quite shallow, so they are very vulnerable to freezes. Which is why you never see 'em up north. I think they get about as far as Oklahoma and Arkansas.

While mesquite wood is quite tasty to smoke with, mesquite leaves have several substances that are quite toxic when burning, and you DO NOT want to be downwind of a burning mesquite stand. Not as bad as Euc or Poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac, of course, but bad enough.

West Texas is pretty infamous for fires as well. And also infamous for hot, dry, very high winds that blow up from the South/Southwest off of the deserts of Mexico and New Mexico. This year, of course, not so much a problem. We've actually been doing amazingly well. We only had a few days of 100+ weather this year, scattered and dotted about instead of solid weeks (plural) of 100+ weather, and it's been one of the wettest summers on record. Which has actually been a cause for MUCH grumbling with the cotton farmers, whose product you CANNOT ship wet, and has a tendency to go to seed (losing your entire crop) if it gets rain at the wrong time.
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TazManiac
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Re: NorCal on fire...

Post by TazManiac »

Currently, we got about an Inch of Rain, help came in from niegboring States, a lot of big fires have been 'contained' and the Cat is currently sitting between me and the keyboard amking it hard to type...
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