or more than occasional as is the reality.
You have heard weather reports in the past – cloudy, raining, partly sunny? Or some variation of the above?
Unless, of course you live in Hawaii and get a report that says – today will be just like yesterday with temperatures in the low 80s with mild showers between 0200 and 0400.
Here in the Bay area the reports range from the lowest temperatures in San Francisco to the highest in the Central Valley. Often those reports include a description of the marine layer or areas of patchy fog to burn off by noon.
Burning off is something we are NOT discussing right now. The fires continue to rage in both Northern and Southern California. Although the Camp Fire is more than 150 miles (240+ km) from here, a pall is layered over the city. It has been days since we have seen the sun, except through a layer of smoke. White in the morning, glowing red like embers in the afternoon, it has been days since we have seen any blue sky.
This is nothing like the horror of Northern California where fire swept through a number of small towns. These are wildfires, not forest fires, Idiot Washington DC based politicians aside. These fires have nothing to do with forestry management and everything to do with people living in areas ripe for burning. California has been dry, the temperatures high, the humidity at close to an all time low. It isn’t trees, it is bush, scrub, tall grass that easily catches fire that the winds whip along at speeds faster than can be controlled or people can be evacuated.
So we have weather reports that warn of particle levels so that those with respiratory disease can take care. People wearing respirators are commonly seen on the street or riding public transportation. The number of joggers has decreased sharply. And smoke, like fog, settling around us.
I think there is something to be said for people being required to clear some vegetation rather than just leaving it lying around. It simply adds to the fuel load. What I see in the hills behind us terrifies me. We have just paid someone to come in and clear some of the excess vegetation on our property but the neighbours on one side had (quite literally) knee high excess vegetation in some places. (It is also a snake hazard and we have extremely venomous snakes in close vicinity.)
We really feel for those in Cslifornia right now.
Much of the land is federal. It is home to wildlife. So when you clear out the underbrush you change the environment and destroy the homes of rabbits, moles, ground dwelling birds plus disrupt the predators who feed on the previously mentioned critters.
No way around it, the gradual increase in temperatures, the decrease in rainfall and people moving out into wild areas = more fires.
But, according to a certain idiot – global warming is a Myth…