by hodgesrm on 9/9/20, 6:32 PM
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.
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.
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.
[1] https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/09/08/...
by mertd on 9/9/20, 6:00 PM
The photos in the article are not enhanced for dramatic effect. This is really how it looks like in person.
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.
by victorkab on 9/9/20, 6:15 PM
by enahs-sf on 9/9/20, 6:00 PM
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.
by floatrock on 9/9/20, 6:43 PM
by somerandomacc on 9/9/20, 6:04 PM
1. Orange skies.
2. Extremely expensive housing.
3. Can't go outside.
Mars? Nope, San Francisco.
by scarmig on 9/9/20, 6:37 PM
When I woke up this morning, my first thoughts: "Oh, I woke up early... hmm, nope. Huh, I wonder if WW3 started last night."
It makes me long for the fresh air and clear skies of Beijing.
by foxyv on 9/9/20, 6:16 PM
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.
by blendo on 9/9/20, 5:57 PM
My first thought upon awakening at 7:30 am was “Has the Sun turned off?”.
Three hours later it’s even darker.
by baddox on 9/9/20, 6:14 PM
Now at 11am in downtown SF it is much darker than it was early this morning when these pictures were taken. It's disturbing, to say the least.
by trhway on 9/9/20, 6:27 PM
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.
by fasteddie31003 on 9/9/20, 6:33 PM
Basically nullifying every air pollution effort for years. Reducing CA wildfire should be environmentalist number 1 priority.
by hatsunearu on 9/9/20, 6:35 PM
Yeah, wore my gas mask for my commute today... Regular masks don't cut it
by zwieback on 9/9/20, 6:44 PM
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.
by aurelius12 on 9/9/20, 6:35 PM
My tomatoes are unhappy about this development.
by DanBC on 9/10/20, 2:21 PM
Over two million acres are burning. If you live in the UK, that's all of Dorset and Devon combined, on fire.
by BrianB on 9/9/20, 7:14 PM
Is it fair to say that the weather patterns are becoming (more) chaotic? In the exponential-sensitivity sense.