San Francisco in the Smoke [Canon 5D]
June 24, 2008
(click in the image for a larger, smokier version)
As you may have seen in the news, California has a big problem with fire right now. We had a storm roll through over the weekend that brought with it a weather phenomenon that is comparatively rare for our area: dry lightning (i.e., lightning with no rainfall). Thousands of strikes all across the central and northern part of the state ignited the dry brush and timber (extra dry from low rainfall this year and a couple of recent triple-digit heat waves) into over 800 wildfires. These new fires are in addition to a few large ones that have already been burning for a while. The result this week has been some of the most unhealthy, smoky air I have ever seen here.
It is particularly bad where I live in the Sierra foothills between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. To quote from our local paper:
“This is the worst we’ve ever seen it,” for particulate levels since the district started measuring air quality 15 years ago. "We’ve never seen the numbers this high, it’s almost 400 micrograms per cubic meter and the hazardous level is 260."
Even near the ocean in normally clear San Francisco, it was very bad this morning. The image above was taken from the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge looking back at San Francisco. The Bay Bridge, barely visible, is on the left and the Trans America pyramid building is just to the right of center.
I stopped to take this on my way to a consulting appointment. I have a full week scheduled of one-on-one training and consulting here in San Francisco and the Bay Area. If you live in the northern California, Bay Area, or Sacramento/Tahoe regions and are interested in scheduling a private training or consulting session, drop me a line at sean(at)seanduggan.com.
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