It seems clear that the Western US is going to burn until the fuel is gone in enough places that megafires can't develop easily. It's like ecological herd immunity.<p>Most affected states are still in the reactive firefighting mode rather than thinking how to get ahead of the curve by removing a century of fuel accumulated from determined fire suppression. There's no question rising temperatures make things worse, but really the bill is just coming due sooner.<p>CA gov Gavin Newsome's news conference is a good sample of what's currently wrong with our approach. It's what he doesn't say that's interesting.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/09/08/newsom-no-patience-for-climate-deniers-amid-historic-heat-fires-1316014" rel="nofollow">https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/09/08/...</a>
The photos in the article are not enhanced for dramatic effect. This is really how it looks like in person.<p>Hopefully this will finally hit some people hard and we'll reverse the decades of urban sprawl and environmental mismanagement. In all likelihood, it will be forgotten as soon as the blue sky returns.
That's the view from my apartment's window. No edit or HDR, just Halide without white calibration.<p>It actually looks pretty beautiful, Blade Runner style. Unfortunate that it's because of fires though...<p><a href="https://twitter.com/victor_kabdebon/status/1303715029779230720?s=21" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/victor_kabdebon/status/13037150297792307...</a>
Strong blade runner vibes going on today. It's so odd to see people going about their day as if normal when there is nothing normal about today. Was outside near Lake Merritt and there are people jogging and having coffee. Pure dystopia.
NOAA satellite 2-hour west coast timelapse animation really gives a sense of the scale of the smoke: <a href="https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector_band.php?sat=G17&sector=psw&band=GEOCOLOR&length=24" rel="nofollow">https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector_band.php?sat=G1...</a>
When I woke up this morning, my first thoughts: "Oh, I woke up early... hmm, nope. Huh, I wonder if WW3 started last night."<p>It makes me long for the fresh air and clear skies of Beijing.
Saw something similar to this in the Inland Empire during the camp fires up at Big Bear. I remember attending a Civil War reenactment at the time and it was raining ash and the smoke was so thick you couldn't see the sun. It was so surreal.
Sun is blocked, and thus the temperature on Peninsula which was predicted to be in 90ies (naturally given no NW wind) yesterday and today is 65F currently at the noon. Basically a nuclear winter preview - the amount of wood burned in the last month near Bay Area (say 20 ton x 800K acres) is like several large nukes. Daily - 20 ton x 10K+ acres - is like a smaller one.
Corvallis, OR, is one of the worst places right now. Orange skies and ash everywhere. It's working its way indoors and I can see black deposits collecting in my sink.