Worth A Thousand Words

It looks like the frigid weather in the Plains and Northeast will last through Groundhog Day, February 2nd:

East Coast sentiment

Forecast models don't offer any relief...

 Weatherman Mark Finan a week ago

The forecast map though Groundhog Day:

Temperature Anomaly thru 1st week of February

The Culprit:

Big Picture

The 'Blocking High' that's keeping every drop of precipitation away...entrenched.

There are active wildfires in California today, and officials continue to warn of High Fire Danger.

Warm temps keep bears from hibernating. Photo at Heavenly Valley Ski Resort

Let's be careful out there...and keep our fingers crossed!

Where There's Smoke, There's Burners

Friday SturgeUrge and I were driving to a neighboring town to pick up the F/V SturgeUrge's Tow Vehicle from the auto shop. Heading north on I-680 during the afternoon commute, we saw a polished aluminum duck decoy-looking trailer being towed north...

An 'Art Car' heading for the Black Rock Desert for the Burningman Fesitval.

It was a very artistic piece...think Airstream Trailer-style.

I told Urge: 'I'm gonna miss being in Truckee this week...all those Burners with all their crazy art on trailers in every parking lot in town (Well, at least every grocery store and hardware store parking lot!)

Some of them are invisible for all intents and purposes...especially those who's artform is self display. However when their week on the Playa is over and they head home, they all sport the telltale Playa Patina on their rides.

This morning, @NWSSacremento tweeted: "Latest updates on #AmericanFire and #RimFire, with hi-res satellite image from yesterday. #cawx pic.twitter.com/JqxaBwFLe0"

The Burners are gonna have a lot more smoke than that from 'Burning The Man' Saturday night! Smoke from the huge 'Rim Fire' is already over the Black Rock Desert as I type. Here's the NWS Sacramento's High-Rez Satellite View:

You can see the smoke from the 'Orleans Complex' and 'Salmon River Complex' in the satellite picture...look at the red squiggles to the left of the 'Latest Fire Updates' title at the top. These are the two fires that the Siskiyou Wing of the family have been dealing with this month...

Back to my neck of the woods, I look forward to seeing the smoky photos from this year's Burn...meanwhile there's San Francisco Giants baseball, Formula One racing and, the America's Cup to enjoy before I head up the Hill for the 50th Anniversary Reno National Championship Air Races, where I traditionally see my first 'Autumnal Light' reminding me that winter is coming.

Red Flag Warning

From the WeatherUnderground active Warnings Page:

"... Red flag warning in effect from midnight tonight to 3 am PDT
Wednesday for thunderstorms. The red flag warning covers most
inland portions of the San Francisco Bay area...

The National Weather Service San Francisco Bay area has issued a
red flag warning... which is in effect from midnight tonight to
3 am PDT Wednesday.

* Affected area: all inland areas of the San Francisco Bay area
except near San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley.

* Timing: shower and thunderstorm chances will begin by late
Sunday night and continue through at least Tuesday
night... possibly into Wednesday as well.

* Thunderstorms: gusty winds and lightning are possible through
the period. Thunderstorms may initially be dry but should become
wetter with time. Stronger storms may produce abundant lightning
and small hail.

* Outflow winds: speeds to 25 mph are possible near thunderstorms.

* Impacts: dry fuels along with the potential for abundant
lightning may result in new fire starts even with storms
that are wet.

Precautionary/preparedness actions...

A red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions
are either occurring now... or will shortly. A combination of
dry fuels and lightning strikes could result in numerous fire
starts."

      To quote Lance Armstrong: "Not. Good."

As I type, it's 97.7 °F at 5:40PM in the Inland Valley. I spent some time sittin' in the pool between the Giants game and the NBCSportsNet replay of today's Louis Vuitton Cup Final Race 2, and watered all 360° of the Ancestral Diggins...Saturday's High was only 76.2°F, and I transplanted two little Artichoke plants Saturday as well...

The Beaver Creek Fire continues to balloon out of control. Evacuations are up to 2600 according to the 6 o'clock news on KSFO...with another 1300 under Pre-Evacuation Orders. The news reader said 160 square miles now have burned. InciWeb has it over 100K acres.

The Siskiyou County Wing of the family is sitting pretty, the Orleans Complex is moving away at 10+ miles away and counting. InciWeb says they expect 100% containment by September 15th at 6PM PDT!

The Red Flag Warnings cover Truckee, Reno,NV and the Tahoe Basin, as well as most of the Sierra...I've cancelled my trip to Truckee for the time being...to avoid the smoke from the 'American Fire' and the thunderstorms the NWS is promising for the week...

Reno's NWS Office posted this to their Facebook Page

I'm curious what this weather regime will do the the America's Cup Regatta on San Francisco Bay...The challengers are into the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals now to decide who will challenge for the Old Mug come September, and they've been more than exciting!

After two days, where four races were scheduled, equipment failures and high afternoon winds, just two races were contested. Each race had the winner crossing the finish line while their opponent limped to shore after an on-course equipment failure.

Monday, the Organizers have moved up the first race of the day to 12:10PM for Race 3 & 4.

These 72ft catamarans are like 'Floating Formula One Racers'...carbon fiber on the bleeding edge, racing at speeds not even dreamed of two years ago, not to mention back in 1986 when I first dreamed of America's Cup racing on The Bay!

I finally found a decent, printer-friendly TV schedule of the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals: Thanks San Jose Mercury News! I scrolled to the bottom of today's story, copied it, and made a Word.doc for the clipboard.

Let's be Fire Safe out there...We can get thru this!

This Time It's Personal

Well Fire Season is in full swing around the West...and it got personal on July 29th when the 'Dance Fire' in the Six Rivers National Forest ignited around 5PM.

Sister Sweetly and the distaff half of the Siskiyou County Wing of the Family rolled into the Ancestral Digs on Sunday the 28th for some good ol' Family Togetherness. We got the whole Family Dinner Thing together for Monday night, and had a grand old time catching up!

Sometime after Mom went to bed, Mrs. Wing gets the call from her hubby...there's a fire in the neighborhood and we're being evacuated...

Sister Sweetly and the distaff half of the Siskiyou County Wing of the Family blew out of town around 0630 the next morning...

Mrs. Wing dropped Sister Sweetly off at her coastal hamlet and snuck into her place before dark. Nature played nice and the 'Dance Fire' spared the Siskiyou County Wing's little slice of Paradise, and the Evacuation order was lifted at 6PM Wednesday evening.

Things settled down just in time for another wildfire in their neighborhood, the 'Butler Fire' to spark up around 10PM on Wednesday the 31st and the whole thing morphed into the 'Orleans Complex'...it's still active nineteen days and 15,466 acres later!

The Siskiyou County Wing are fine and safe...all the drama is 10 miles away now, and heading away.

Today I noticed another wildfire, that's much bigger and much more troubling...the 'Beaver Creek Fire' has been burning since lightning sparked it off on August 7th. It's up to almost 93,000 acres...and displaying 'extreme fire behavior'

From InciWeb: "Beaver Creek Fire is burning around the footprint of the 2007 Castle Rock fire and threatening the towns of Ketchum/Sun Valley and Hailey. Resources at risk include ski areas, homes, power transmission lines, Highway 75 and scenic recreational trails and camp grounds."

Last I heard, 1300 homes and vacation palaces are under evacuation orders.

Closer to home, the 'American Fire' burning near Foresthill on the Tahoe National Forest will continue to smoke out Truckee and the Tahoe Basin this week...

It's too early for this much fire...use your heads, be fire safe, please!