Well. Turns out that over 1000 fires burning at one time can wreak quite a lot of bad air. Go figure. I traveled the 230 miles to Fresno and back, yesterday, and there seems to be a uniformly ugly gray-brown blanket over the whole of Northern California--the Valley, for sure.
1000 fires?!! Get out! Yup, it's true. Here's an interactive Google Map to check out the specifics: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1012305.html
AND a very cool satellite photo of NoCal I pulled off the net. Click to enlarge. The closest fires to us are represented by the upper red spot a bit west of the northern shore of Lake Tahoe
Our friends, Tic and Terrie, had scheduled to come up for the night, tonight, on their way to Lake Almanor (annual family thing), a bit farther north from here, but have rerouted to the Bay Area (where most of the fam lives) until it's clear that they can get through some of the crazy fires that are scattered like so much debris across the landscape. We're disappointed, but hope their family fun can move ahead, somehow.
Grass Valley, which, along with Nevada City, has been rending garments and gnashing teeth about the fireworks issue for years, just declared a ban last night. One problem has been that many organizations count heavily on the money they make from the sales of "safe" fireworks (don't explode or leave the ground--) to fund their activities for the year. Another problem is that if people can't get "safe" ones, maybe they'll go for the other kind , which pose a greater hazard. Seems it's too much to ask for folks just to cool it with the fireworks, this year.
One city councilman commented that it would look bad for fireworks to be sold withing shouting distance of the Idaho firefighter sleeping in a tent at the fairgrounds (staging area for local firefighting activity), exhausted from working the blaze for twelve hours straight. Bad form, for sure.
So, the Lions Club and the Boy Scouts are in the deep weeds on this one.
At our house, it's still as smoky as it's been at any point, this week. The local Air Watchers didn't even have high enough numbers on their scale to measure the hazardous particulate floating around (didn't think they'd ever need numbers that high). So, I've curtailed my morning paper walks for the duration. It's so unusual to be without any breezes at any time of year, we've noticed, but it's helped some of the firefighting efforts that embers aren't floating as far. However, it's also made it more difficult for the air support to see the fires through the smoke. More thunderstorms are supposed to be arriving this evening, for the weekend, and they will probably be dry, electrical storms, like the last one. No sense in keeping this situation simple, I guess.
We are, of course, not in any danger, and hope that it remains the same for as many folks as possible. Stay tuned...
