Smoke and Fire
Several wildfires continue to burn in the wine country north of San Francisco, among other places in California. We're not in danger of these fires spreading to where we live. We're 70+ miles away and separated by a large amount of water! But the smoke is getting to us. Literally.
Here's a picture NASA Earth tweeted two days ago showing smoke from the fires:
NASA Earth image of fires near Bay Area as of 10 Oct 2017. Link: go.nasa.gov/2wL2BDh.
When this picture was taken the smoke plumes were blowing generally northwest from the fires. At times of the day the wind shifts around, pushing the smoke south. Then it's directly over us.
Yesterday was a tough day in the South Bay. Obviously we don't have it as bad here as towns within a few miles of the fires, or even as bad as cities like Oakland, which is 20 miles from the nearest fire. But yesterday was bad enough that looking out the windows of my 6th floor office I couldn't see more than a mile away. ...And I can usually see 20 miles away, easily.
I regret that I didn't take pictures of the smoky sky yesterday. I did take a few today. Here's one looking to the east, toward Fremont Peak.
As a reminder, here's what it looks like on a typical afternoon (photo from July):
Here's a picture NASA Earth tweeted two days ago showing smoke from the fires:
NASA Earth image of fires near Bay Area as of 10 Oct 2017. Link: go.nasa.gov/2wL2BDh.
When this picture was taken the smoke plumes were blowing generally northwest from the fires. At times of the day the wind shifts around, pushing the smoke south. Then it's directly over us.
Yesterday was a tough day in the South Bay. Obviously we don't have it as bad here as towns within a few miles of the fires, or even as bad as cities like Oakland, which is 20 miles from the nearest fire. But yesterday was bad enough that looking out the windows of my 6th floor office I couldn't see more than a mile away. ...And I can usually see 20 miles away, easily.
I regret that I didn't take pictures of the smoky sky yesterday. I did take a few today. Here's one looking to the east, toward Fremont Peak.
As a reminder, here's what it looks like on a typical afternoon (photo from July):