We are now 85% contained, all evacuation orders lifted, and all but one warning lifted, so it is time for me to put this series to bed, hoping that there will not be cause to post again re fires this season. We can expect highway problems this winter, probably several pockets of isolation for a time, so prepare accordingly.
It has been quite a trip! So glad it is almost over <3
Nice job Kate. Well deserved break.
Can’t thank you enough, so many of us have relied on your posts and I know I speak for many when I say how grateful I am! You are much appreciated and I’m so happy for you getting back to doing more of what you love.
Thank you, Kate, for the unending stream of information and situational awareness. You are an anchor for many here on the coast. We are grateful for your efforts!
Maybe not more of what I love, just yet. There is a ton of dust to sweep up, mop up, and wipe down from all the traffic through here, so starting on that today.
Kate,
thanks for another great job well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As we have come to expect…and respect…a great job keeping us all informed these past 46 days. Thank you.
Fire still going here in Buck Creek. Flames and embers shooting out the top of a redwood that burned the second day. Now a chimney. No danger to the community.
Yeah, we have one going on over here, too, but not a danger to any resources, so we just get to watch and get nervous. PTSD is a real thing.
Hi Kate and All,
First Thank You Kate for covering all these fires through the years and i have to admit at first during the Basin Complex, Soberanes fires it felt energizing and exciting and thrilling to be among fires that challenge us and are needed to clear out overgrowth and renew forests, however now i feel mentally sick, anxious, and frustrated at our carbon footprint and the accentuated anthropocentric induced climate change that is directly affecting us like these fires in very negative ways! I heard the term the other day and its called “fire fatigue” and is a real threat to mental health! I think most do not even know they are experiencing it and i have discovered i have issues with it now to the point i am almost certainly relocating out of my extreme fire dangerous area in the Santa Lucias to a more safe living situation. I feel mentally great till about late May and then the panic and anxiety kicks in and i feel strangely off all Summer and on edge when the winds pick up, we have a heat wave, i smell any sort of smoke, along with fearing if i leave my property in the summer- for a much needed vacation- and i will not be there to protect my structures. This is not a healthy way to live! The times we are entering living in Big Sur are going to be very challenging with these fires, and the wetter winter atmospheric river storms impacting areas very strongly on the southwest facing windward coastal side of the Santa Lucias from Mt Carmel to Cone Peak region as the amount of rain from these storms increase causing mud and rock slides and damage to aging infrastructure like culverts, bridges at a much higher interval. Lastly not to be a downer but our once beautiful back country is know completely destroyed and all my favorite back country hiking areas that i love to visit in our Spring time are going to be jungles off brush and dead burnt trees with invasive pampas and Genesta invading (if fire destroys an area over and over again without larger tree regrowth the forest becomes much more prone to invasive plant species).
I’m praying these fires are part of a hundred year cycle that we last had around the 1900’s with the Big Burn in Montana and huge fires throughout the West during these dust bowl times when the atmospheric teleconnective variables (e.g. colder phase of North Pacific Decadal Oscillation, stronger Walker Circulation or trade winds, positive phase of Arctic Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation during our Winter months) were similar to 2011-2015 drought that has triggered the intensity in most of theses fires. I’m hypothesizing that once most of the spatial land coverage has been burned- like in California now!- we will have a long period of no fires. We do not know if this will happen or not but looking at a map on what has burned it looks like fire containment will become easier with more very recent burns (last 5-10 years) limiting spread and containment lines will be easier to re construct in areas that have recently burned like how the lost valley line helped slow the Dolan fire. Its very sad but true we have to think about fires re burning in areas that have already burned just years after fire ravages the area and lastly everyone does need to keep their guards up -as our fuel index levels reach the driest all year- till rains arrive maybe next weekend but i would mark later October or even mid November before we can put fire gear away for a little bit.
cheers, Paul