A Smoky Sunset

Yesterday evening we saw a very smoky sunset. This was taken about an hour before the sun actually set, but you can certainly see how much smoke was in the air to the West of where I live. The sun was a bright, vivid red. To the east it wasn't a whole lot better, the smoke was a bit less obvious, more of a smear across the sky, not like what we saw to the West. I can only guess that the smoke to the west was coming from the fires down towards Napa. The photo was taken from my front yard, looking across the street towards my daughter's home.
Today, the sky doesn't have any big billowing smoke plumes. It's just an overall tan color and the sunshine has an orange cast to it. It's still warm today, but not terribly hot, thank heavens.

As for the fires, there are still a lot of them from the lightning the other day. I'm going to copy/paste what it says from the CalFire incident page.

Summary of Fires by Unit

Siskiyou Unit: All 8 fires have been contained for a total of 10 acres.

Humboldt-Del Norte Unit: 50+ fires for more than 900 acres, with 4 new fires today. The Paradise Fire is Northeast of Shelter Cove and is 600 acres and 5% contained, The Redcrest Fire is 30 acres, the High Fire is in Humboldt Redwood State Park with unknown acreage or containment, the Carson Fire is 40 acres and 50% contained, the Hansen Fire is 2 acres with unknown containment, the Williams Fire is 25 acres and 50% contained, In the BLM Headwaters Forest there are three additional small fires buring.

Mendicino Unit: 90 fires have been reported for a total of more than 7,625 acres. The Orr Fire is 200 acres and has evacuations of the Orr Springs Resort and 50 homes in the area, the Navarro Fire is 1,400 acres and 5% contained, the Cherry fire is 50 acres and 50% contained, the Foster Fire is 50 acres and 50% contained, the Table Mtn. Fire is 1,000 acres and 5% contained, the Mallo Pass Fire is 800 acres, and the Juan Creek fires (2) are at 100 acres each. There are 8 additional fires at 30 acres each.

San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit: 15 fires have been reported. The Quarry Fire is located near the base of San Bruno Mountain is 300 acres and 85% contained. Click Whitehurst/Hummingbird Incident for more information on these fires.

Amador-El Dorado Unit: All fires for a total of 80 acres have been contained.

Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit: 7 fires reported. The fire of concern is the Mosquito Fire which is holding at 75 acres.

Butte Unit: 24 fires for a total of more than 1,397 acres. The Rim Fire has burned 50 acres with unknown containment. Butte County Sheriff’s department is effecting a Precautionary Evacuation Advisory for the Lake Concow Area for a lighting fire in excess of 100 acres burning off of Rim Rd. (Also referred to as Andy Mountain Rd.) in the Concow area. The American Red Cross is setting up an evacuation shelter at the Spring Valley School at 2771 Pentz Rd. off of Hwy 70. There are four road closures in effect: Concow Rd. from Yellow Wood Rd. north to the end of the pavement on Concow Rd, Concow Rd. from Nelson Bar to end of pavement, Rim Rd. (also known as Andy Mtn. Rd) from Hwy 70 to end of Rim Rd., Deadwood from Hwy 70 to Concow Rd.

Tehama-Glen Unit: Over 36 fires for a total of 2,146 acres.

Shasta-Trinity Unit: Over 130 fires for a total of 5,000 acres. Shasta-Trinity Unit Information (530) 225-2510

Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit: 6 fires with 4 contained. Two fires for a total of 7,250 acres. Over 300 homes threatened. The Wild Fire is burning near Napa West of Fairfield. Click on Wild Fire Incident for more information.

Lassen-Modoc Unit: 45 total fires for 500+ acres

Tuolumne-Calavares Unit: 16 fires for a total of 140 acres. Currently the counties of Tuolumne and Calaveras are experiencing heavy smoke in low lying areas due to fires caused by heavy lightning activity yesterday.

Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit: 15 fires reported
The Cunningham Complex (5 fires total) are burning 3,150 acres total, the Stumpfield Fire is burning 2 acres, the Indian Peak Fire is burning 60 acres, and the Oliver Fire is burning in the Sequoia National Forest. The Sequoia National Forest has reported 25 fires.

It's an unbelievable amount of fires that the firefighters are trying to cover, isn't it? I read in one article that the National Guard has also been called out to assist. Too many fires and not enough resources to fight the hundreds of fires that are burning all over the state. The fellow over at California Fire News has a link to a map of all of the fire incidents that are going right now. (The map is a pdf file so it may take a few moments to load.)

The Indians Fire is also still burning more acreage. It's only 58% contained still and it's burned close to 58,000 acres. The Indians Fire has been burning for two weeks now! (I can't get my normal links for the Indians Fire to load today... Server problems? Bandwidth? I don't know. So the link goes to a page that was updated yesterday.)

I am wishing for some cooler, wetter weather to help the firefighters out... How about sending some good wishes for that towards California, folks?