Good Morning!!!! 36F @ 7:30AM here in Chico, CA. Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. Expect widespread areas of smoke and haze, reducing visibility at times. High near 65F. Winds light and variable.
Kyle, it's all about the fuel ladder. Keep the flame height low by removing fuels from the ground. Keep it out of the trees by limbing them up at least ten feet. Most people do neither, especially in Paradise. My friend that lost his house admitted as much, for both his and his neighbor's yards. All of my property burned, but the open areas away from the house were covered with mulched grass clippings that didn't have much heat energy. The trees survived because they were all limbed up. The fire was wind driven as evidenced by the unburned grass in the 20'x30' "yard" behind the patio on the south side of the house, in the shadow of the wind. A 30' wide band of decomposed granite, gravel, or concrete surrounded the house on all sides. The fire burned to the edge of that zone and stopped. Unfortunately, people in high population density areas don't have enough room to make fire safe zones. Maybe they'll take that into consideration when/if they rebuild Paradise. I also recall seeing cedar shake roofs on homes in my friend's neighborhood. Unbelievable! Perhaps they'll revise the building codes to incorporate fire safe materials and construction techniques.
Reports are coming in of looting in areas northeast of where I live. We're supposed to get an inch of rain a day starting Wednesday and lasting into Friday. Hope it's a gentle rain that soaks in; with all the vegetation gone from the hill sides, there could be mud slides everywhere. There's a Red Flag Warning in effect for the rest of the day due to high winds in the foothills and mountains. The silver lining might be cleaner air for those of us down in the valley. Fingers crossed on that.
No return call from the electrical contractor I contacted last week, so I'll have to try again on Monday. I at least want to get the permits in place so the job is ready to go when the evacuation orders lift. I'm pretty sure I have the plugs and SO cord on hand to rig up the generator to power the well and jet pump, and the rest of the house, but I'd rather have an electrician do it with a permit. But I won't wait a week for someone to do work I can do myself, either.
Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!
Yesterday, the weather forecasters said a cold front was coming; 40% chance of rain today. This morning when I got up they had taken the rain out of the forecast, said it was 41 degrees going for a high today of 44. And now it's 39 and they're forecasting a high of 47.:laughing:
