Helicopters were more common than airplanes Tuesday, and noisy ones flying over the neighborhood woke me up twice before I was done sleeping. Each time, I spent quite a while with my brain buzzing about one thing or another before I was able to get back to sleep, and I ended up finally rising about half past one in the afternoon. I think I had a few strange dreams, too, but I don't remember them. There was just that uneasiness I get when I've been dreaming something disturbing.
The fires are still burning, of course, and thus the helicopters. The big fire to the west is up to 850,000 acres, so it'snot growing as fast as it was for awhile, but still only about 30% contained, with not date set for likely containment. The fire here in Butte County is still threatening a group of very small towns a well as parts of the Oroville area, but is getting closer to containment. It is now at 300,000 acres. The fire in Fresno County is still growing, and the prospective containment day has been moved from October 15 to October 31.
Things are probably worst in Los Angeles County, where the Bobcat fire still threatens the observatory and the communications infrastructure on Mount Wilson, as well as small communities which ave been evacuated along the northern foothills at the edge of Antelope Valley. Large sections of Pasadena and Altadena are still under evacuation warnings, as wind is expected along with high temperatures today.
Another heat wave is in view here as well, with triple-digit highs expected for the last four days of September, with warmer nights predicted too. It's unlikely that we'll be seeing anything resembling autumn weather until well into October, if then. This has been a very, very, very bad year, and it isn't over yet. I sure hope we never get into a situation in which we will look back on 2020 as the good old days.
But at least it's nice out tonight. I'm going to go sit in the slightly smelly, but cool, back yard for a while before I go to bed.
