Once in a Life Time

When my son was a little boy he would listen to story tapes to help him fall asleep.
He listened to one, frequently, about the 1883 eruption of the volcano Krakatoa. One of the effects of that eruption was that the ash entered the atmosphere, reflected sunlight, cooled the Earth's temperature, eventually came down as acid rain.
I am not suggesting that our fires remotely compare to Krakatoa, but some similarities abound. At sunrise and sunset the sun has been bright red. Although it's light out now, there is no sunshine. Indeed it is much cooler -OK, less hot- than it was projected to be today, were it not for the smoke cover.
Outdoor activities have been cancelled, and should be. No concert in the park. The swim complex is closed.
We are actually located in between three fires. One in Napa, One in El Dorado County, (between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe), The third near the town of Paradise, not too far from Chico. (Again, there was a large fire just last month.) We spoke with a fire crew from the LA area yesterday. They said that the smoke's like this for one hundred miles south.
If one were to combine all the land that has burned, we'd have two-thirds of the area of Switzerland! Thank goodness, that's a small country.
Unlike the years it took for the after-effects of Krakatoa to clear, when these fires are out, a good breeze should clear our air. We will be able to go back outside and enjoy our outdoor life.

Wild Fires

Fire crews in Northern California are still trying to put out over seven hundred (700!) wild fires. The air looks foggy, overcast for sure. I don't even see a red sun today. Although we are coming up on the middle of the day the temperature outside is 67'.
Outside workers have begun to wear masks to keep the smoke particles out of their lungs. There aren't even any fires burning in our County, just the neighbors to the north.
Weather forecasters tell us that it will be a few days longer before the smoke dissipates.