Sending good thoughts your way! Hope it all of you stay safe and out of the fires' way

We've been lucky with few forest fires in BC this year because we had a lot of rain in July but having said that my nephew and his family are on evacuation alert and the wind is picking up this morning and will hit them this afternoon. Hopefully they and their neighbours are okay.

Thinking of California right now as they're really being hit hard.

Not a member but this is a friend of my DS & DIL who works for Big Basin, the oldest state park in CA. He's standing in front of the house he and his wife used to live in. Both DS & DIL have worked at parks in CA and have friends on all over the state and on fire crews. Fires have burned all the way to the water in Santa Cruz. They are constantly trying to check in with people they know and monitoring fire movement. Very scary times - again.

Big Basin was where I went to camp every summer. It's a magical place. Up here Armstrong Woods is burning at the north end. It's just awful.

Stay safe, Bunny. It's an early start this year with the heat.

Thinking of all our California friends and your families. Stay safe, and I sincerely hope the fires are controlled soon or it rains!

I'm fine here in Oakland. Lots of smoke from elsewhere so the air quality is terrible. There has been visible ash in the air when I've ventured outside. Thankfully it has cooled off a bit here so I don't have to make the impossible choice of a 90 degree house or a smoky house.

I'm texting with a friend in San Jose whose sister had to evacuate from her Santa Cruz Mountains home. They anticipated the evacuation order and left before it was announced. They are staying at my friend's house in San Mateo, while my friend is staying with her mom in San Jose.

Rain is extremely unlikely until October, Outside Playing. It will rain maybe once all summer, and only a fraction of an inch. California is a summer-dry climate and we get almost no rain from June through September. Which is why fire is a perennial problem. But we can hope for milder temperature, little wind, and maybe a little humidity.

Yeah, we've always had dry summers. The culprit this time was the highly unusual lightning strikes of a week ago. There's also a lot of old growth forests that haven't burned in a long time, plus the incredibly hot weather that has gone on for weeks. There are lots of old summer cabins that people live in year round along verdant winding roads. A lot of the evacuations were for people not in imminent danger, but to get cars off the roads for emergency vehicles. Residents trying to get out at night with a fire bearing down is too awful to even think about.

LA area is fine right now. We had some smoke last week, but the winds shifted and we haven't had smoke this week. Coming into the warmest weeks of the summer right now, which doesn't help the firefighters.

I'm far away from the areas that are burning, but in a high fire danger area, so I'm always worried during fire season. I'm keeping in touch with friends who live in Santa Rosa and Lake Tahoe. So far, both are doing okay except for air quality.

Fun, I'm in Santa Rosa. I took my granddog for a walk at 8 this morning and it was delightful and the air quality was good. Since 10 or so it's reeked of smoke, really really bad.

Today is better than yesterday for the air quality. I'm hearing stories though, of people that have lost homes. My eyes were itching and watery yesterday, and there was ash fall. The two main lightening strike fires are near populous areas in the North-east and South-east of the Bay Area. And the Napa and Russian River wine area are at high risk, with some wineries hit and harvests interrupted. The unusual and rare lightening strikes caused fires that have combined into mega-fires.

Bunny, I did not realize Armstrong Woods is burning. Yikes. I'm near the coast in San Francisco, so not impacted as much as most. Just smoke and ash overnight and in the mornings. Afternoons and evening clear up over here. My coworker lives near Santa Cruz, about a mile from the evacuation line for the CZU Lightning Complex. The family, dogs and chickens are all ready to make their escape. Another coworker lost his home in a fire two years ago. Very scary!

Our local meteorologist said that the smoke from CA will reach the east coast in the next couple of days and we'll have poor air quality as well.

That lightning from the other day was crazy to see in the bay area.

Bunny, how do you prevent the smoke from coming into the house? It's not like the house has a "recirculate" button like in the car. There's a minimum of fresh air that must come in through the HVAC.

Evacuation lifted and power on last night, but pretty scary. I am on the edge of rural Vacaville.

we woke up to this early Wednesday morning.

After evacuation, we snuck back in Wednesday after neighbor texted our yard was still smoldering,

Rain is extremely unlikely until October, Outside Playing. It will rain maybe once all summer, and only a fraction of an inch. California is a summer-dry climate and we get almost no rain from June through September. Which is why fire is a perennial problem.

And any rain that does come is very light but accompanied by thunder storms and lightening strikes which start fires. 😥

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get fires in Oregon. 🤞

I hope that I didn't just jinx us!

gsciencechick, my house doesn’t have AC. Typically I open it up at night and then shut it down by 9 am. I run a ceiling fan and a couple of strategically placed tower fans. My house has double pane windows and decent insulation. Throughout the year I leave my bathroom windows open. So, long way of saying, mostly it keeps the smoke out although there was a slight smell of it in the bathrooms Later today. By about 4:30 pm the wind had blown the bad smoke away and it was time to open the house. Not ideal, but mostly it works on hot days. We just have had so many hot days this summer.

@nanelle I'm glad you are safe and the fire's advance did not take your home.

There was a bit of rain last weekend with that lightning -- not even enough to wet the ground near me.

Nanelle, those pictures were so frightening. I'm glad you and your home made it through safely.

Bunny, that's what I do, too, except I leave a door open upstairs to let the heat out and I stay downstairs where it's much cooler. Several years ago, when we were engulfed in smoke from a nearby fire, I was sweltering because I had to close up the whole house. I'm so thankful that our temperatures cool down overnight. As long as we don't have more than three consecutive days over 90, I can tolerate it. As Cawaps said, sometimes you have to choose between being miserably hot or breathing in smoky air.

I'm at home in West Los Angeles right now, but tomorrow we are going back to Cathedral City. I put off going there because of the Apple Fire, which was northwest of Palm Springs and had caused unhealthful air for several days. That fire is 95% contained, and the air quality in the Coachella Valley is moderate - while the air quality here is twice as bad, although not nearly as bad as Sonoma.

The nearest fires to us in Los Angeles are in Ventura County, and we will be going in the opposite direction (more or less) tomorrow.

Today the pool was 95-96° in the afternoon in CC, but I'm hoping it will be cooler tomorrow. At 11 PM the pool is still 94°, and so we might only be able to swim at night, which would probably be okay. I don't go in the pool before 5 or 6 anyway, as I want to avoid the sun.

From far away, I'm looking at the Monterey/Salinas papers and TV stations. Our old house in Carmel Valley is right at the edge of the Carmel Fire evacuation area, and the neighborhood is now on alert. We lived there for 13 years, 1985-1998, and all I can see in my heart are all the people and places and sights in this amazing little community. There have been fires way farther up the valley in the past, but nothing more than a 2 or 3 acre spot fire close to us. And I've known many many people who live in the evacuation area of the River Fire. I spent a lot of time up the in Santa Cruz mountains, going back many year to when I li ved in Palo Alto, and again, thoughts of Big Basin, "Little Basin", and all the mountain communities. We went to the beaches north of Santa Cruz and visited Bonny Doon and Davenport, and often drove up to Pescadero. All doomed, I fear. I am heartbroken and fear for all old friends, going back 50 years, and the ghosts of my life.

This video from Big Basin is just heartbreaking. So much is irreplacable.

https://www.newsandguts.com/video/californias-oldest-state-park-and-its-redwoods-devastated-by-fire/

Thankfully we do not have any local fires in Orange County currently. Keeping all here directly affected by the fires in my prayers.

Yesterday was better. Today was smoky skies, and reeked of smoke. We went to San Jose to drop off something to our son, and the 101 was hazy. Our air purifier is on 24/7.

My thoughts are with those on high alert this evening, as the winds and potentially lightning hits again (with little rain to help). There was a period today where the smoke was so thick it swirled today (and I'm not even close to a fire zone).

Walbridge Fire: We dodged a bullet last night and the dry lightning stayed away. They have lifted the Red Flag warning for now. They are making positive progress although still 5% containment. The smoke here at 1 pm is horrendous so most everyone is stuck inside. Animals napping and being troopers. #SonomaStrong

Question about the fire near Healsdburg---- is it to Felta Creek Rd? That's where DH's cousin lives and has vineyards.

sushi, do they have a winery as well? I'll see what I can find. I love Felta School.

ETA: I really can't tell what's happening there. It's not far from from Mill Creek Rd. that's suffered quite a bit of losses, but Felta Creek might be safe. I don't want to speculate. This is a screen shot of the Emergency Services evacuation map. The black dot in roughly the middle is Felta Creek Rd. Those red spots are presumably fires. The yellow to the right is a warning zone, be ready to evacuate. Healdsburg is to the northeast in the yellow. It's tough getting accurate info without someone with onsite knowledge. Good luck and best wishes to your DH's cousin. Please let us know how it goes for him.

No, Jim's cousin's son is a vineyard manager for several vineyards and they have their own vines, too.