Smoke signals
Sep. 7th, 2020 21:58![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillThe smoke arrived while I was having lunch.
I was worried enough when it thickened that I walked out to the blueberry patch in the far pasture... I couldn't see even a distant smoke plume, and nothing showed up on any fire map I could find, so I uneasily continued with my day. I was out picking Aronia berries around sunset (with a mask on) when the wind arrived. My friend in Portland had said the wind there was terrific -- now I could feel an eerily warm gust swirling about, and I heard branches snapping on the west ridge. Those are mature Doug firs that I call our "green ocean", because they toss around every time the sea breeze comes in from the coast with the fog -- they're used to wind. But a couple of hours later I could still hear sharp cracks with particularly strong gusts. I wonder whether we'll lose any trees... probably not down here, we're just getting eddies and the occasional blast that makes the roof creak. Maybe on the hillsides, though. (Note to self: don't be surprised if the power cuts out.)
Apparently all of this smoke -- and it's almost as thick as any we've had in Concord -- is coming from around Mount Hood, hundreds of miles away. Portland is getting smoke from Eastern Washington. A storm, probably the result of the double hurricane that made landfall across the southeast last week, is dumping that moist air as snow on the Rockies, and shoving the smoke from eastern Oregon and Washington out to the coast. That would explain why it was still nearly 70 degrees at 9pm.
It's supposed to be quite warm and very windy tomorrow, and likely very smoky still.
It feels a little like the Blitz has followed me to the country. On the plus side, the fires are not (yet!) local, and they are largely burning in unpopulated areas, rather than consuming whole cities. I'm wearing a mask outside because the smoke is enough to sting my nose, and I know my joints don't appreciate PM 2.5 in that concentration, but the ozone isn't an issue so far. And I suspect that in a few days, the usual weather patterns will reestablish themselves, and Karl will come creeping over the western ridge in the evenings again. We just have to get through this Northwest version of the Santa Anas.
It's making me very restless, though. It's clear to me that I, like many Californians, have too much trauma around wildfires to be able to take this sort of thing philosophically. I'm too aware that in these conditions, practically the entire state is a tinderbox just waiting for a spark. I really hope the transmission lines are in better shape around here than they are in California...
I have all the windows closed, my air purifier on (for the first time since I got here) and a fan running for circulation. I hope I can sleep.
I was worried enough when it thickened that I walked out to the blueberry patch in the far pasture... I couldn't see even a distant smoke plume, and nothing showed up on any fire map I could find, so I uneasily continued with my day. I was out picking Aronia berries around sunset (with a mask on) when the wind arrived. My friend in Portland had said the wind there was terrific -- now I could feel an eerily warm gust swirling about, and I heard branches snapping on the west ridge. Those are mature Doug firs that I call our "green ocean", because they toss around every time the sea breeze comes in from the coast with the fog -- they're used to wind. But a couple of hours later I could still hear sharp cracks with particularly strong gusts. I wonder whether we'll lose any trees... probably not down here, we're just getting eddies and the occasional blast that makes the roof creak. Maybe on the hillsides, though. (Note to self: don't be surprised if the power cuts out.)
Apparently all of this smoke -- and it's almost as thick as any we've had in Concord -- is coming from around Mount Hood, hundreds of miles away. Portland is getting smoke from Eastern Washington. A storm, probably the result of the double hurricane that made landfall across the southeast last week, is dumping that moist air as snow on the Rockies, and shoving the smoke from eastern Oregon and Washington out to the coast. That would explain why it was still nearly 70 degrees at 9pm.
It's supposed to be quite warm and very windy tomorrow, and likely very smoky still.
It feels a little like the Blitz has followed me to the country. On the plus side, the fires are not (yet!) local, and they are largely burning in unpopulated areas, rather than consuming whole cities. I'm wearing a mask outside because the smoke is enough to sting my nose, and I know my joints don't appreciate PM 2.5 in that concentration, but the ozone isn't an issue so far. And I suspect that in a few days, the usual weather patterns will reestablish themselves, and Karl will come creeping over the western ridge in the evenings again. We just have to get through this Northwest version of the Santa Anas.
It's making me very restless, though. It's clear to me that I, like many Californians, have too much trauma around wildfires to be able to take this sort of thing philosophically. I'm too aware that in these conditions, practically the entire state is a tinderbox just waiting for a spark. I really hope the transmission lines are in better shape around here than they are in California...
I have all the windows closed, my air purifier on (for the first time since I got here) and a fan running for circulation. I hope I can sleep.
