Things Seem to be Improving

The sun rising behind the smoke.

Later in the day, still smoky.

The last few days, I have woken up and looked out the front door to see an ominous wall of smoke on the eastern horizon, obscuring the sunrise. Today, I opened the door and thought that it was the worst day ever in terms of the smoke! Until I realized that what I was seeing was actually fog. The wind has shifted to bring cooler, more humid air from the Pacific. For those of us living in coastal areas, including San Diego, this is good news. The westward migration of the fires has been stemmed and the largest of the fires in our area (Witch Creek Fire) is estimated at 40% contained with full containment estimated by Tuesday. There is a down side here, and that is that people living to the east of the fires are now threatened. Many evacuated areas are in the process of being repopulated, but evacuations of other areas continue... so there's still a long way to go. We are still safe and have had no problems related to the fires or evacuations, but there remains a warning to beware of poor air quality and limit exposure. Hopefully we will get some stronger sea breezes in to help clear out the smoke and pollution.

Map of the Damage

You can find a Google-based interactive map of the areas impacted by the fires here. We're about where 94 and I-5 intersect. The winds appear to be subsiding and all hopes are that the fire crews can get things under control.

Fires, Day 2

We are still OK. These fires are very serious, though. San Diego's Mayor, Jerry Sanders, had described the fires as among the worst in the history of the state of California. In his own words, that's saying something. One of the problems contributing to the fires is the wind. One of the seasonal aspect of living in this region is a hot desert wind known as the Santa Ana. Santa Ana winds can be very strong and blow east to west. The winds have been fueling the fires and blowing ash and embers westward to touch off more fires. The big problem here is that the more populated coastal areas lie to the west of the fires, including San Diego. Everyone is hoping that the tide will turn to a sea wind by the end of today or early tomorrow, and help stop the fire's westward migration. We can only wait and see.

The lab facility where I work remains closed, and emergency officials are asking that people stay off the freeways and off cell phone networks so that emergency traffic and communications can easily get through. Like I said, we are doing fine - but hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated and many of them have already lost their homes. One positive thing in this whole situation has been the way people have responded. My understanding is that there has been very minimal loss of life because of the evacuees' calm and orderly responses to evac orders, and the support of volunteers and emergency officials, including the Marine Corps and National Guard.

I am sure you can find more detailed information from any news site, but just wanted to let you know what's happening from our perspective.

SD County Fires

Hi everyone,

we have been hearing from concerned family and friends asking about the fires in southern California. You've probably been hearing the most about the fires at Malibu, which is west of LA (about 2 h north of us). But there are also some fires very close-by, in Ramona. The areas west of there (Rancho Santa Fe) and other places are being evacuated. We live in the city, so the fire risk is low but we are getting a LOT of smoke and ash. My work building, which is close to the evacuated areas, has been closed today. We (Pie Girl, Harry and I) are safe at home and doing fine. Harry is glad we have off from work today!

It's sort of like a snow day, except instead of running outside to play, you shut up all the windows and stay inside. We'll let you know if the situation changes, but for now there is no reason to worry. Thanks for thinking of us!

Smoke 72°F Feels Like 72°F Updated Oct 22 09:00 p.m. PT Watch the San Diego Forecast UV Index: 0 Low Wind: CALM Humidity: 16% Pressure: 30.13 in. Dew Point: 23°F Visibility: 6.0 miles