cccorlew

My heart aches for all who lost their homes and loved ones in Paradise due to the Camp fire.
The fires in California are also affecting the air quality throughout most of the sate. It's hit dangerous levels in the Central Valley and Bay Area.
As a daily bike commuter I wore a mask (for the first time in my life) a couple of days this week. Friday my college campus closed, so I don't need to ride, and I'm hiding at home where, just stepping outside, I can smell smoke. The air quality maps show us above an index of 300. According to Facebook posts (take as you will) we've now reached the achievement of having the worst air in the world. I thinking everyone is hoping for a little breeze and some rain to clear things out, but it doesn't appear to be coming soon.
So if you are in California, think twice about riding in this mess, then just don't do it. If you're elsewhere, think a kind thought for us.

350htrr

Here in BC this summer It too (smoke) was so bad for like 8 weeks that I only rode my bike 600Kms this season instead of the 2,400Kms I usually ride... I thought of starting to wear a mask but... chose not to ride instead.

caloso

I haven't ridden outside since last week. Only Zwift and no commuting.

fietsbob

Wind Currents brought the BC fire smoke down the west Coast, this summer..

Maps show, and I hear on radio, online from Berkeley, Air Quality is unhealthy

down there, where I used to live..


....

Kedosto

Like an idiot, I rode the first day it was bad. In my defense I didn't know how bad it was when I left the house in the dark. I haven't ridden since and it looks like I won't until after Thanksgiving -- if we can get some rain to help clear the air. Now, I have all the N95 masks I need but it's my eyes I can't protect.


-Kedosto
*thankful my world isn't on fire*

rydabent

What is sad is those two big fires could have been prevented!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ogmtb

How did you determine that?

No official cause has yet to be determined for wither the Camp Fire nor the Woolsey fire.

It seems that you are posting nonsense. Again.

tyrion

Check your air:

https://airnow.gov/

Air still good in San Diego. Take care all you smoked out folks.

ogmtb

An even better resource for live results:

https://www.purpleair.com/map?#6.37/37.635/-122.446

caloso

I've pretty much had purpleair.com in an open tab for the last week.

B. Carfree

Believe me I feel your pain. This summer we got off easy in the Willamette Valley, but it's become clear over the past few years that fire/smokey air is going to be our new normal on the west coast.

At least in California, severe fire conditions are so normal that everyone who has lived there for more than three years is aware. In Oregon, people are under the illusion that it is still 1980 when fires were rare and burned out in wet conditions before they became overly large. We don't actually have the capacity or desire to even extinguish them, we just get them contained and wait for the rainy season (which is two months late this year).

KraneXL

A particulate filter. Just don't stay out too long Timmy.

woodcraft

John E

We are fortunate to have avoided the air quality impacts this far south (north coastal San Diego County), but my brother's extended family lives in and around the greater Santa Rosa area. One set of inlaws lost their home and their mom-and-pop auto body shop two years ago, and now it seems like bad air quality has become an annual ritual up there.

I was also sad to see some of my favorite old cycling roads in the Malibu hills, as well as the old M*A*S*H TV series set (I knew Harry Morgan pretty well during his Col. Potter years), right in the middle of this year's fire.

This all brought back memories of 1961, when fire burned across Bel Air, Brentwood, and Pacific Palisades. Many of my school friends lost their homes, and ours got filled with mud during the rains that followed.

rydabent

Forest mismanagement. Large fire breaks should have been put in place. Allow people to cut trees and brush further from homes than the law allows now. Calf and other western states should have a fleet of water tankers to attack fire as it get started. Get the idea********************??

GailT

I get the idea that you know nothing about wildfires in the west. Sad and pathetic that you parrot this nonsense.

ogmtb

Every single sentence that you posted is false.

You know nothing yet feel the need to post.

I pity you and your lack of intellect, knowledge and grace.

DiabloScott

The equivalent of paper towels in a hurricane. 😒

eja_ bottecchia

DrIsotope

We do have a fleet of tankers. One of their bases is about 4 miles from my house. Regardless of suppression tactics or political opinions about land management, I think people in general just don't have any idea how much forested land is in the state of California. For instance, Maine is almost 90% forest-- and contains about 17 million acres. California has 33 million acres of forest-- in a total area of 105 million acres. The entire state of New York would fit in California's forested land, with room left over for Connecticut. Fire is nothing new to California. And yeah, they've gotten more frequent, and worse. But arguing about why serves no purpose. We're all gonna have to figure out how to deal with it, or all go up in flames.

For final (relevant) point of comparison, the Camp Fire has burned an area larger than the Nebraska National Forest-- and it's just 55% contained.

KraneXL

All this information is fascinating, but the solutions remains unresolved. No one has yet offered any viable solution to these fires. I would think that human error plays a big part in this since fires don't ordinarily start by themselves.

ogmtb

rydabent

Well then tell us of your great knowledge and degrees about forest fire protection.

trailangel

First...... The National forests are managed by USFS.... a Federal agency. This areas burning in CA are national forest areas.
Homeowners are encouraged to cut, never heard about a law saying you can only cut so many ft from your property into Federal land.
State the law please.

Apparently you have never been in 100 degree heat with zero percent humidity and 50-60 mph dry winds.....the water that's dropped evaporates as it hits the ground.

Time for CA to become it's own country. If you want to watch anything on Cable it's going to cost the rest of the 49 states twice as much.
If you want to go to certain internet sites... you are going to pay for it.
You want to go out to a movie..... you pay triple.

What an ignorant post by the bent rider..... but what do you expect from Nebraska.

rydabent

You can also post the list of your great knowledge in forest management. Large in place fire breaks are logical. Changing laws to cut trees and brush further back from buildings is logical. Western states need to buy up parked large aircraft like 747s and others, and kept ready to attack fires before they spread. This too is common sense and logical. Laws could also be passed to require metal roofs on buildings in fire areas. Give tax relief to anyone constructing a pond or swimming pool to fight the fires.

Bottom line, present forest management in Calif stinks. Proof is simply to look and what has happened and sadly those that have been killed. Trying to cover up the mismanagement by the present b'crats dont cut it.