We Saw Blue Sky!

There are fewer active fires burning across Northern California and we've had much milder weather for a couple of days, so we had much less smoke in the air this morning. The long range visibility was still a little hazy, but it was so much nicer to actually see blue sky above. This afternoon though, the sky has the gray-brown cast to it again. I guess the wind changed again. If you look at the Satellite image below from the MODIS Rapid Response website (This one is dated 6/29, there are no newer ones yet and there won't be a newer one until the satellite goes over this part of the country again.) you can see a lot fewer red spots that indicate active burning. Thank goodness!


The map below came from the MODIS Active Fire Mapping Program on one of the US Forest Service websites. I've reduced the size of it for posting purposes, but if you click here you can get to the full sized and most recent map. Otherwise, just click on the map below and take a look.

According to Cal Fire, the total number of active fires has gone down, but some of that reduction is due to the merging of some of the smaller fires that had been started by the lightning event over a week ago. Hopefully the firefighters can get containment on the rest of the fires soon (And have no new fires start!) so those poor exhausted people can get some much needed rest.

Mike, my landlord who lives next door, and I took advantage of the clearer air this morning and yesterday morning. We now can walk under the trees! He got his chainsaw out and did some trimming on the low hanging branches of the trees between the houses. He also climbed up on the roofs of both houses and trimmed off the branches that had been brushing against the shingles. What a mess. He did the trimming while his girlfriend Kathy and I piled stuff into his little "truck bed" trailer. Two trailer loads of trimmings gone and most of the rest of the debris all cleaned up and hauled off. It looks much nicer between the two houses now, but we're all pretty wiped out. I think I'll go fix a nice tall glass of iced tea.... And then maybe soak a while in a bathtub full of hot water.. lol