
Foreboding Skies over the SF Bay Area - theuri
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-awakes-to-foreboding-smoke-choked-15553731.php#photo-19929829
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hodgesrm
It seems clear that the Western US is going to burn until the fuel is gone in
enough places that megafires can't develop easily. It's like ecological herd
immunity.

Most affected states are still in the reactive firefighting mode rather than
thinking how to get ahead of the curve by removing a century of fuel
accumulated from determined fire suppression. There's no question rising
temperatures make things worse, but really the bill is just coming due sooner.

CA gov Gavin Newsome's news conference is a good sample of what's currently
wrong with our approach. It's what he doesn't say that's interesting.

[1]
[https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/09/08/...](https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/09/08/newsom-
no-patience-for-climate-deniers-amid-historic-heat-fires-1316014)

~~~
maerF0x0
ideologues are able to turn any event into evidence for their perspective. I'm
not a climate change denier, I just agree with you that the real issue is
humankind's fire suppression.

There are a bunch of things that could be done, but no one is happy to support
it. Selective logging, brush clearing, not putting multi-million dollar homes
in the forest. etc.

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eweise
was the same in California 20 years ago. Didn't have fires like this. What's
changed?

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albertop
It was 20 years less of neglect. Not sure when we have stop doing controlled
burns in the name of keeping air quality good. It was more than 20 years ago.

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mertd
The photos in the article are not enhanced for dramatic effect. This is really
how it looks like in person.

Hopefully this will finally hit some people hard and we'll reverse the decades
of urban sprawl and environmental mismanagement. In all likelihood, it will be
forgotten as soon as the blue sky returns.

~~~
el_benhameen
My phone camera can't really even capture the effect. The color correction
algorithm doesn't think the sky can be this color.

~~~
saagarjha
I've been capturing pictures through the window that are half indoors, half
outdoors. This makes the color correction algorithm stop trying to get rid of
the orange.

~~~
el_benhameen
Yeah, I managed to finally get a good one by including some artificial white
lights in the frame.

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victorkab
That's the view from my apartment's window. No edit or HDR, just Halide
without white calibration.

It actually looks pretty beautiful, Blade Runner style. Unfortunate that it's
because of fires though...

[https://twitter.com/victor_kabdebon/status/13037150297792307...](https://twitter.com/victor_kabdebon/status/1303715029779230720?s=21)

~~~
ping_pong
I also had to use Halide to get a real pic of the skies. The iPhone was too
"smart" and would get rid of the color sepia color in the sky.

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enahs-sf
Strong blade runner vibes going on today. It's so odd to see people going
about their day as if normal when there is nothing normal about today. Was
outside near Lake Merritt and there are people jogging and having coffee. Pure
dystopia.

~~~
mikestew
Redmond, WA didn't have orange skies (hazy and smokey, but not orange), but
with air quality in the "unhealthy whether you're 'sensitive' or not" range
and a thin layer of ash on the car, I decided to skip the morning run
yesterday. According to TFA, it didn't smell smokey in SF, so perhaps that's
why folks were out?

~~~
0max
Based on NOAA satellites, the smoke and fires seem to end in Oregon, but I
don't doubt that this may extend up to BC in no time.
[https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector_band.php?sat=G1...](https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector_band.php?sat=G17&sector=psw&band=GEOCOLOR&length=24)

~~~
mikestew
_Based on NOAA satellites, the smoke and fires seem to end in Oregon_

No, your _view window_ ends in Oregon. I don't know how one is supposed to
determine anything about what's going on in Washington state from that link.
Here's a more useful link for the doubtful:

[https://www.airnow.gov/?city=Redmond&state=WA&country=USA](https://www.airnow.gov/?city=Redmond&state=WA&country=USA)

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floatrock
NOAA satellite 2-hour west coast timelapse animation really gives a sense of
the scale of the smoke:
[https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector_band.php?sat=G1...](https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector_band.php?sat=G17&sector=psw&band=GEOCOLOR&length=24)

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somerandomacc
1\. Orange skies.

2\. Extremely expensive housing.

3\. Can't go outside.

Mars? Nope, San Francisco.

~~~
jdhn
You forgot the fourth point, Teslas everywhere.

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scarmig
When I woke up this morning, my first thoughts: "Oh, I woke up early... hmm,
nope. Huh, I wonder if WW3 started last night."

It makes me long for the fresh air and clear skies of Beijing.

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foxyv
Saw something similar to this in the Inland Empire during the camp fires up at
Big Bear. I remember attending a Civil War reenactment at the time and it was
raining ash and the smoke was so thick you couldn't see the sun. It was so
surreal.

~~~
clairity
we had a milder version of this kind of pollution in LA for the past few days,
although today seems almost back to normal. over the weekend, the orange
haziness of the sky was pretty noticeable.

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blendo
My first thought upon awakening at 7:30 am was “Has the Sun turned off?”.

Three hours later it’s even darker.

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baddox
Now at 11am in downtown SF it is much darker than it was early this morning
when these pictures were taken. It's disturbing, to say the least.

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trhway
Sun is blocked, and thus the temperature on Peninsula which was predicted to
be in 90ies (naturally given no NW wind) yesterday and today is 65F currently
at the noon. Basically a nuclear winter preview - the amount of wood burned in
the last month near Bay Area (say 20 ton x 800K acres) is like several large
nukes. Daily - 20 ton x 10K+ acres - is like a smaller one.

~~~
t0mbstone
It was like 80 degrees in Phoenix, AZ today... in the middle of summer. That's
basically unheard of.

I guess you could say that even giant smoke clouds sometimes have silver
linings...

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fasteddie31003
Basically nullifying every air pollution effort for years. Reducing CA
wildfire should be environmentalist number 1 priority.

~~~
cryptonector
Sacramento and Newsome won't be doing anything at all to reduce wildfires,
just like Brown before him. No controlled burns. No dead tree removal. No fire
breaks. Nothing.

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hatsunearu
Yeah, wore my gas mask for my commute today... Regular masks don't cut it

~~~
derwiki
Despite it looking apocalyptic, the air quality is still in a relatively safe
range

~~~
hatsunearu
My lungs were pretty irritated today though

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zwieback
Corvallis, OR, is one of the worst places right now. Orange skies and ash
everywhere. It's working its way indoors and I can see black deposits
collecting in my sink.

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aurelius12
My tomatoes are unhappy about this development.

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DanBC
Over two million acres are burning. If you live in the UK, that's all of
Dorset and Devon combined, on fire.

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BrianB
Is it fair to say that the weather patterns are becoming (more) chaotic? In
the exponential-sensitivity sense.

