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So Cal Fires (again)

George PGeorge PAdmin.
This is our second day of very high winds in southern california. A bunch of brush fires have been ignited, they are near impossible to fight when the winds are blowing this hard.

I live at the southern edge of what is called the most primitive wilderness area in North America, the Sespe Wilderness. Its not possible to fight fires in the Sespe because it is so primitive (no roads). The fire fighters have to wait until the fire moves closer to the cities, until then it just burns. Last summer there was a fire in the Sespe that lasted about a month and a half. You would think there's nothing left to burn, but there's a new fire burning today north east of my home, we were just given an evacuation notice.

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The sky is full of smoke, the air smells like a camp fire, its hard to breathe outdoors. The outdoors has an orange hue to it, like looking through amber glasses. The sun is just a little orange ball in the sky, the ground would be covered with ashes if it weren't for the high winds blowing the ashes away.

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The folks over in Malibu have it worse, I hope all of our friends on the PI Forums and the POCA Mail List are OK.

George
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George PGeorge PAdmin.
Thank you, everyone, for your kind thoughts, they paid off!

I watched as the flames crested the hill behind my home last night, and then they stopped... and retreated. This morning, no more smoke, the winds have died down, the temperatures are cooler, the air is more breathable, the highway in my valley is reopened.

The US forestry service says the fire is 45% contained, whatever that means. The Sespe Wilderness is part of the Los Padres National Forest.

I love you guys (in a non-gay way Smiler )
4nford4nford"Live wrong and Perspire"
quote:
Originally posted by Cowboy from Hell:
Thank you, everyone, for your kind thoughts, they paid off!

I watched as the flames crested the hill behind my home last night, and then they stopped... and retreated. This morning, no more smoke, the winds have died down, the temperatures are cooler, the air is more breathable, the highway in my valley is reopened.

The US forestry service says the fire is 45% contained, whatever that means. The Sespe Wilderness is part of the Los Padres National Forest.

I love you guys (in a non-gay way Smiler )



Good to see you back George! We were getting a bit worried about you!
1973ufo1973ufoTeam Pantera Participant at Sandhills Open Road Race - August 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, & 2013
VERY happy to hear that you were spared from all the devastation going on around you!! We may have to put up with the occasional tornado around here but I can't imagine what the people facing these fires are going through.

Bob
George PGeorge PAdmin.
Thank you everyone.

Gary, to answer your question, when the high winds blow here, with gusts in the 70 to 100 mph range, it will cause the cables of the high voltage power towers to swing, and they eventually come close enough together to arc & make sparks, the sparks touch off the dry brush below the towers, and we have a fire. Another cause of fires are poorly running cars that fill their catalytic converters with unburned fuel thus creating sparks or flames. Lightning has occasionally started fires, but that was not the case this time. However, if you have watched the news, you have seen that over a dozen fires were started. Some of them are nowhere near a road or high voltage power towers. The remainder of the fires were started by arsonists.

Much of Southern California is a dry, desert area. Some of that desert has been reclaimed, valley by valley, because we import water from the western & eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Colorado River. Dry brush is natural to the ladscape. So are the dry, hot, high speed desert winds (aka Santana winds). We were lucky this time, the high winds only lasted a few days. They can last upwards of two weeks. To give you an example, 2 nights ago the temperature in the evening never dropped below 80 degrees, last night the temperature dropped to about 65 degrees, a 15 degree difference in 24 hours, simply because the direction of the winds changed.

George
George PGeorge PAdmin.
The mexicans call the desert wind satans wind, satan in Spanish is santanas. Slightly Anglicized, the word becomes santana. There is a city in Orange County named Santa Ana (Saint Anne). Its not unusual for the winds to be mistakenly called Santa Ana winds in the newspapers and on the news broadcasts.

I doubt Saint Anne appreciates satans wind being called by her name.

cowboy from hell

PS: Spain being very Catholic, many counties of Spanish influence have cities and places named for saints, Santa is a female saint, San is a male saint.

San Francisco is Saint Francis, San Juan is Saint John, San Pedro is Saint Peter, San Jose is Saint Joseph, Santa Maria is Saint Mary, Santa Barbara is Saint Barbara, etc, etc
Last edited by George P
A Astephens (Guest)
quote:
Originally posted by Cowboy from Hell:
The mexicans call the desert wind satans wind, satan in Spanish is santanas. Slightly Anglicized, the word becomes santana. There is a city in Orange County named Santa Ana (Saint Anne). Its not unusual for the winds to be mistakenly called Santa Ana winds in the newspapers and on the news broadcasts.

I doubt Saint Anne appreciates satans wind being called by her name.

cowboy from hell



I have lived in Southern California for most of my 52 years and I did not know that. Heck, I was even born in Santa Ana! No brush fires in Long Beach.

Art
Last edited by George P
panteradougpanteradougMember
So Cal does have it's problems.

I never realized that the humidity was so low, i.e., less then 10%.

When the winds whip up they suck out whatever is left of the moisture.

Then it just takes one radical with a match to prove to everyone that the polar caps are melting and the polar bears have no where to go.

See, I don't understand, if everyones house looked like a birds nest, wouldn't it burn faster?

Anyway, glad you are alright and the manifold didn't melt.
D detom (Guest)
quote:
Originally posted by Cowboy from Hell:
The mexicans call the desert wind satans wind, satan in Spanish is santanas. Slightly Anglicized, the word becomes santana. There is a city in Orange County named Santa Ana (Saint Anne). Its not unusual for the winds to be mistakenly called Santa Ana winds in the newspapers and on the news broadcasts.

I doubt Saint Anne appreciates satans wind being called by her name.

cowboy from hell

PS: Spain being very Catholic, many counties of Spanish influence have cities and places named for saints, Santa is a female saint, San is a male saint.

San Francisco is Saint Francis, San Juan is Saint John, San Pedro is Saint Peter, San Jose is Saint Joseph, Santa Maria is Saint Mary, Santa Barbara is Saint Barbara, etc, etc


Dang George. I wish I hadda knowd this years ago. I woulda never listened to his music had I known that. I bet that is where that term, satnic rock, came from. All these years I been listening to devil music and never knew it.
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