Back in June, I posted on the beginning of fire season in this region. Believe me, it is still going strong here, with a monster fire, called the Day Fire, raging east of here. The LA Times had good run-downs on it yesterday and today. It really slapped me in the face over the weekend.
I went to the USC-Nebraska football game in LA Saturday night (Lauren got me a ticket for my birthday) and driving back late that night, I was headed north on I-5. When I got to Valencia you could smell the fire and see it on the horizon. From there I headed west on SR-126 and could either see the fire on the skyline or see it reflected in the smoke above it all the way past Lake Piru. That's about 12 miles or so east-west. It's burned almost 70,000 acres so far. I passed a convoy of six LA County firetrucks headed west into Ventura County to fight it.
The Santa Ana winds are blowing straight out of the east and pushing the fire west into the town of Ojai. The smoke and ash are blowing straight into here. When I got here into Santa Barbara about 1 AM the ash was so thick it was like driving in snow flurries. And this is with the fire about 30 miles away. Here's a picture of ash on the car I took the next morning.
My office window looks out on the Santa Barbara airport and I have been watching the bomber shown in the top picture continually flying in and out over the last two days.
We are in for a tough time with this as it could be another month before it starts raining again. Like I said in June, pray for rain.
5 comments:
What a great picture of the plane, Reid! Do you know what the fire surpression material they're dropping is?
(If that were a scene from Louisiana, they'd be dropping mosquito killer)
Fab pic! Funny: when I visit S.B. I stay on the shore about five mins from the airport. Planes fly in very lower overhead. Are you out by UCSB?
Oops, make that "very low overhead."
Our office is off of Hollister Avenue just across the street from the airport tower. That's just west of the Fairview exit on US 101.
I can watch planes all day long from the office window. The day Michael Jackson was arrested at the airport, we could see a half dozen news helicopters hovering for hours on end, waiting for him to fly in from Las Vegas.
We live north of US 101 near the Turnpike Avenue exit.
What's your hotel, MB? Or do you stay with friends? You'll have to give us a call when you're in town next time
Definitely. We stay with the in-laws near Hollister and Patterson, so any visit would certainly be a very short drive. Nice part of the world.
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