No emergency outages after Santa Ana winds prompted Southern California fire danger warnings.
We will never forget the day we awoke to news of the North Bay fires. The news was bad, but we kept moving. In our car, all the electronics were going haywire until we realized it was the power going out across a wide swath of the San Joaquin Valley. The radio was on, so we couldn’t hear what was going on. We couldn’t get an internet fix. We couldn’t order food without going to the store and getting paid for it. And then there was the thought that came to us as we drove along: Where is everyone?
The answer was simple: You can’t see across the valley from anywhere. But then a few minutes later we realized it was a false alarm. The winds had died down. The fire was not out. But the winds returned almost immediately, throwing fire from fire, causing fires from fire. And now, as fires continue to rage across a wide swath of California’s central coast, we are seeing that the winds are returning — with a vengeance — every other week.
Southern California, from San Diego to Bakersfield, is seeing temperatures soar up to 90 degrees above normal. These are not normal temperatures, but they are above normal for this time of year. Over the past two days, there have been 10 fires burning. There have been nearly three times as many as normal, the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (FHP) said on Tuesday.
There were more than 500,000 people affected by the wildfires, according to the Associated Press, which reported 1,094 structures were destroyed and more than 1,000 people were injured.
We live in a part of California where the skies are the color of burnt toast, and when we’re at the beach it’s hot enough you can fry an egg on the sand. We have had our fair share of wildfires and this is nothing compared to those. It’s unbelievable. The sky is a brilliant blue, and the air is warm and dry, which makes sense because California is in the desert. We get what California has to offer. There are deserts to the north and
