The thermometer finally broke 80 degrees F (27 C) yesterday ... to say we've had a mild summer would be an understatement. June is typically a foggy and unseasonally cool month here, but the fog hung around for most of July and into August this year. In July the daytime high never broke 80 and weather.com claimed we had one day of 82 earlier this month, but it didn't feel like it. There's a heat wave around Southern California right now, it was probably 85 on campus and around our house today because we're right on the ocean. Down in LA they had triple digits to go with their wild fires, not a good combination.
I'm not complaining at all though, most days it would get to right about 75 which is wonderful. But with summer winding down it was starting to feel like we'd missed something, like the whole season had passed without anything changing. Plus, the plants in our garden should grow more with steady sun and warmer temperatures! Our tomatoes look really good right now, setting up nicely for a September crop and perhaps on into the fall. We also need some warm temperatures if our pumpkins are to set in time for Halloween =)
Friday, 28 August 2009
Friday, 14 August 2009
Smoke but no fire
It seems like every other time we post it's about wildfire ...
This time the fire is about 75 miles away near Santa Maria, so there's no excitement from evacuation watches or burning hillsides here. Instead, we just get a big plume of smoke and ash falling lightly everywhere. At this point we've had smoke and ash so many times that no one in my lab was really put out by it. The conversations went something like:
"Hey, do you know if there's a fire?"
"No, there must be though. The sun had that ominous orange glow yesterday evening."
"Yeah, and there was ash all over this morning."
"Well, I'm sure we'll hear something."
It was especially weird because the weather here had been quite cool and foggy with little wind, not exactly prime fire weather. From what I've heard since, the fire is raging out of control in mountainous wilderness to the North, with no expected time to containment. The weather on the other side of the Los Padres mountains is always much hotter because it's far from the ocean. There's also another, smaller fire about 80 miles away to the North, plus a third inferno in the Santa Cruz mountains near the SF bay area which is the one most likely to be in the news over the next day or two for burning buildings.
This time the fire is about 75 miles away near Santa Maria, so there's no excitement from evacuation watches or burning hillsides here. Instead, we just get a big plume of smoke and ash falling lightly everywhere. At this point we've had smoke and ash so many times that no one in my lab was really put out by it. The conversations went something like:
"Hey, do you know if there's a fire?"
"No, there must be though. The sun had that ominous orange glow yesterday evening."
"Yeah, and there was ash all over this morning."
"Well, I'm sure we'll hear something."
It was especially weird because the weather here had been quite cool and foggy with little wind, not exactly prime fire weather. From what I've heard since, the fire is raging out of control in mountainous wilderness to the North, with no expected time to containment. The weather on the other side of the Los Padres mountains is always much hotter because it's far from the ocean. There's also another, smaller fire about 80 miles away to the North, plus a third inferno in the Santa Cruz mountains near the SF bay area which is the one most likely to be in the news over the next day or two for burning buildings.
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