In Carlsbad, a beach front community halfway between Los Angeles an San Diego and home to wrec members is in trouble, so hopes that qualifies as on topic.
Serious wind driven brush fires, fueled by Santa Ana winds (offshore) 20-30 MPH sustained with 45 MPH gusts has closed both north and south sides of I-5, has set several structures on fire, and evacuated 11,000 people.
The temperatures (100F) and the winds are making firefighting efforts very difficult.
Many buildings have had to be left to burn since there has been no way to fight the fire attacking them.
Mother Nature uses fire to cleanse and renew forest land when there are no humans to mess things up. Said pesky humans want to live in/near the forest but don't want the work of clearing brush, etc and heaven help anyone who suggests that they've built in a potentially dangerous place.
Eventually, the scrub will be thick enough and dry enough that almost anything can light a major fire. The winds that are pushing this one come on a regular basis, so having them to help the fire isn't news - except to those who never pay attention to anything but sports and fashion.
Also remember that there's a shortage of water out that way and that the number of fire hydrants in most wooded areas is few to none - mostly none because it would cost too much to run the lines and those pesky humans would complain about the pristine forest land being dug up to install water mains.
I like the shade our trees provide, but I move several times my body weight in leaves each year to keep from having a knee-deep fire hazard. If you want to play, you gotta pay...
30 homes lost...... firefighters are trying to contain it. fire season is here on Calif. john
It is 101F outside my window.
In Carlsbad, a beach front community halfway between Los Angeles an San Diego and home to wrec members is in trouble, so hopes that qualifies as on topic.
Serious wind driven brush fires, fueled by Santa Ana winds (offshore) 20-30 MPH sustained with 45 MPH gusts has closed both north and south sides of I-5, has set several structures on fire, and evacuated 11,000 people.
The temperatures (100F) and the winds are making firefighting efforts very difficult.
Many buildings have had to be left to burn since there has been no way to fight the fire attacking them.
Hello from Carlsbad, CA. It is now 6:20 am and there are nine fires going in northern San Diego county. I used to live in Green Valley Lake, CA at 7000 foot elevation in the San Bernardino mountains in southern California. We were evacuated four times in ten years with no damage to our home but then we took some precautions when building our place: composition roof, stucco exterior, covered eaves, befriending the local fire guys, etc. Most importantly, we had defensible space surrounding the house: no bushes, no grasses (3/4 stone makes for a good lawn), and no trees close by. The fire department knew all this and marked us as a good place to save.
Since leaving GVL, they have had no fires. We had an epiphany: We have met the problem and he is us (apologies to Walt Kelly). One of my daughters wished us luck and told us NOT to move to their town. Our condo is situated between two of the fires, neither of which is closer than several miles.
Our problems have been covered 24/7 on local news (everything else shuts down apparently) and made the BBC, PBS News Hour, and Al Jazeera America service. On the whole, I would rather be here than in Philadelphia (apologies to the legend of WC Fields).
The hottest part of the week is behind us; lower temps and higher humidity coming up. Still the best of all possible... oh hell. See you later. mahalo, jo4hn
--------------------------------------- Actually there are patches of chaparral that haven't burned in 50-75 years which is a normal part of it's life cycle.
The old stuff burns, drops it's seeds and the process starts over.
-------------------------------------------------- An acknowledgement that climate change is for real, is the first step.
Single digit relative humidity, triple digit temperatures and Santa Ana winds in excess of 30 MPH are conditions that are expected in September, not May which is still spring time.
Extreme drought conditions for the past 3-5 years has the state on red flag watch which normally would happen in the summer time. (Late July at the earliest).
Take a look around the country.
Floods along the east coast.
Snow in Colorado.
A month ago, snow in Kansas, today the land is so dry they can't plant corn.
An extreme winter that is just ending.
All these things illustrate a change in climate is taking place and man is the chief architect of these changes.
Notice I said "MAN".
Resolving this problem will require a world wide effort.
China & India along with the rest of the civilized world must get involved.
Today, California is on year around fire watch. The lack of rain has made this necessary.
Providing landscaping that is defensible is mandatory these days; however, when you have a 50 ft high wall of flame being driven by 50 MPH winds, you evacuate and live to fight another time.
On 5/15/2014 6:40 AM, jo4hn wrote: On 5/14/2014 1:39 PM, Lew Hodgett wrote: It is 101F outside my window. In Carlsbad, a beach front community halfway between Los Angeles an San Diego and home to wrec members is in trouble, so hopes that qualifies as on topic. Serious wind driven brush fires, fueled by Santa Ana winds (offshore) 20-30 MPH sustained with 45 MPH gusts has closed both north and south sides of I-5, has set several structures on fire, and evacuated 11,000 people. The temperatures (100F) and the winds are making firefighting efforts very difficult. Many buildings have had to be left to burn since there has been no way to fight the fire attacking them. Lego land has been evacuated. This one is going to make the 6:00 PM news. Lew Hello from Carlsbad, CA. It is now 6:20 am and there are nine fires going in northern San Diego county. I used to live in Green Valley Lake, CA at 7000 foot elevation in the San Bernardino mountains in southern California. We were evacuated four times in ten years with no damage to our home but then we took some precautions when building our place: composition roof, stucco exterior, covered eaves, befriending the local fire guys, etc. Most importantly, we had defensible space surrounding the house: no bushes, no grasses (3/4 stone makes for a good lawn), and no trees close by. The fire department knew all this and marked us as a good place to save. Since leaving GVL, they have had no fires. We had an epiphany: We have met the problem and he is us (apologies to Walt Kelly). One of my daughters wished us luck and told us NOT to move to their town. Our condo is situated between two of the fires, neither of which is closer than several miles. Our problems have been covered 24/7 on local news (everything else shuts down apparently) and made the BBC, PBS News Hour, and Al Jazeera America service. On the whole, I would rather be here than in Philadelphia (apologies to the legend of WC Fields). The hottest part of the week is behind us; lower temps and higher humidity coming up. Still the best of all possible... oh hell. See you later. mahalo, jo4hn Girlfriend lives in Vista - today's major area is San Marcos. I likened it to a donut, with her in the hole... have been fires all around her in the last couple of days, and the heat on top of it... No problem where she's at, except for the air quality to go along with the heat. No thanks. Matt
The problem with the climate change belief is that this is a repeat pattern that started way before any one gave any notice. The climate changes seasonally.
FWIW I believe that most of California has accepted the idea of climate change and has pretty much put the state into a bad position financially with no positive results. You can't fix mother nature because she is not broken.
Perhaps if one did not build in a hot bed to begin with....
It has been documented that clean air/skys over the oceans give more fuel to tropical storms. Clean the air over once smog covered areas and things dry out. The cleaning of the atmosphere is probably the root cause of the wild fire problems. and drought.
--------------------------------------------- The time for talk is over, the time for action is here.
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----------------------------------------------------- Not any more, the data is in.
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-------------------------------------------------- Agreed, the event is as a result of conditions set in place; however, the conditions put in place are a result of environmental changes.
The weather events continue to happen but the location, magnitude and timing of the event is changing.
--------------------------------------------------------- It's not that these events happened, it's the magnitude and timing of how these events happened that is what were are talking about.
-------------------------------------------------------- Not any more. Read the last report just issued.
The people who signed off on it have no axe to grind.
Of course we still have the stooges bought and paid for by the Koch brothers as well as the fossil fuel industry lobbyists.
We are in this fight till the death and we simply can't allow the Koch bros and their ilk to win regardless of how much money they throw at it with their smear campaigns.
---------------------------------------------------- Haven't caught any updates this evening but a reported 10 fires in San Diego county has an odor about it if it proves to be true.
It's one of the things I agree with you on. I do believe MAN created this mess.
I believed it b4 we even go to the warnings.
But this is a religious matter, you won't convince either side one way or the other. So I stay out of it.
I don't believe the current solar is working. I think the panels create more absorption and heat the planet, plus the energy to create them is high too, so are the chemicals a problem. And when they go, they are trash that no one wants to deal with.
Wind is another thing that has proven to have some effects on wind currents..
Right now we don't have a good alternative. And I'm not sure we will for a long time.
When I was growing up, all the houses had white asphalt tiles on the roofs. Today, mostly black. We should start there. I live in the country, the temperature differential is more than 20-30 degrees in the summer nights, on a dry night. On a humid night, much less.
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