Red Ring Tupperware Party, Autumnal Equinoctal Edition (24)

JWright wrote in post #17707588
There was a engineer around a few years back that would start his charcoal grill with a lit cigarette. And a gallon of liquid Oxygen...

No wonder California is burning up!

Yikes. No kidding.

Lake County is really suffering. It has a total population of around 60,000, and it's estimated that at least 19,000 people are being displaced by this latest fire.

Unless El Nino starts the rains early, we have at least another 6-8 weeks of fire season to go.

Timphoto wrote in post #17707691
Lake County is really suffering. It has a total population of around 60,000, and it's estimated that at least 19,000 people are being displaced by this latest fire.

Unless El Nino starts the rains early, we have at least another 6-8 weeks of fire season to go.

makes me glad to have had 130" of snow last winter....

1st august, they - home depot - had snow blowers out... go figure!

JWright wrote in post #17707588
There was a engineer around a few years back that would start his charcoal grill with a lit cigarette. And a gallon of liquid Oxygen...

George Goble.

After a few years, this event at the annual picnic of the University's CS/EE Department drew too much attention and the local Fire Department asked him to retire it, well over 20 years back.

The video of the lighting was probably one of the proto-viral videos of the Internet. Youtube was still over 10 years from launch.

Timphoto wrote in post #17707595
No wonder California is burning up!

He was from Purdue University.

Video: https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=UjPxDOEdsX8

Impressive

Looks like a fun guy to hang out with.

Chet, the weather has turned a little more favorable (cooler, more humid), but progress is slow.

Coverage: San Francisco Chronicle

It looks like Southern California has been getting a bunch of rain, but I haven't heard about it moving north...

On a lighter note, for those familiar with the Los Angeles area, the LA River has been flooding, which is pretty wild, I grew up alongside that "river" and knew it as more of a "trickle"!

For those who saw "Terminator 2", the LA River was that sluggish little flow that they spent time on, chasing around, but not flooding!

Chet wrote in post #17709322
What's the fire progress look like today? I pray they are making headway in getting it under control!

It's grown to 67,000 acres, but containment is up to 15%. The weather guessers are predicting some rain up there Wednesday evening into Thursday morning. We're predicted to get 2/10ths of an inch here and it usually rains more to the north. I hope they are correct. The smoke has cleared enough to allow the air tankers back in. Things are looking up, but there is a long ways to go.

Timphoto wrote in post #17709520
It's grown to 67,000 acres, but containment is up to 15%. The weather guessers are predicting some rain up there Wednesday evening into Thursday morning. We're predicted to get 2/10ths of an inch here and it usually rains more to the north. I hope they are correct. The smoke has cleared enough to allow the air tankers back in. Things are looking up, but there is a long ways to go.

it is insane just how much goes up in such a short space of time!!

I'm renting a house in San Diego for a week at the end of October. I hope the whole state isn't burned up by then.

Harm wrote in post #17709723
it is insane just how much goes up in such a short space of time!!

Down here we get grass fires quite often. With no wind they can burn about as fast as you can walk but get a little breeze behind them and you might have trouble outrunning it.

We don't get forest fires in this area very often. Back in the day there must have been enough of them because there are old fire watchtowers around still. But that was back when fire was used in all aspects of life. Anymore, we have to have a super dry season and then have something start one. And then they are well contained.
Field fires are more common. A bad bearing, slipping belt, rubbing tire, uncleaned equipment, or exhaust from a vehicle can start a field fire in seconds. And since the fields are always dry when being harvested, the fire moves fast. There was one summer that was extra dry and there was a field fire nearly every day, sometimes there would be several in one day. The volunteer fire departments were kept quite busy.

Harm wrote in post #17709723
it is insane just how much goes up in such a short space of time!!

You have to appreciate how tinder dry everything is up there after 4 years of drought.

The good news is that right now we're getting drizzle and light rain without too much wind. That will help the firefighters get it under control.