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Thread: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

  1. #1

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    Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    https://weather.com/news/news/2018-0...son-carr-fires

    I don't know how this will effect Shasta bound photographers, but it can't be good.
    It sounds like Redding is in serious danger.
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  2. #2
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    It is very bad.

    Here in the Midwest, the local news shows a 48 state map that has fire icons as large as each state, so it looks like the entire West is on fire.

    Good luck!
    Tin Can

  3. #3
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    That's dry brush country. it is very bad.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  4. #4
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    All my alternative locations are getting smoked out. But due to their lower elevation and summer heat, I wouldn't think of the Trinity Alps before Oct anyway. Recently that's been the WORST fire month in California due to seasonal dry winds like the Santa Anas down south or Mono Wind on the west slope of the Sierra; but it all just depends on where the fires are and what direction the wind is going. One year I got smoked out of upper Convict Canyon clear over on the East side of the range due to a modest brush fire way over by the coast near San Luis Obispo. Some peculiarity of the wind just happened to siphon the smoke directly into that area, which otherwise is protected by high peaks and even quite high passes. Redding is a moderately large city on the Valley floor, right at the north end of the Sacramento Valley, and gets the hottest summer temps in CA other than desert areas. All that heat gets trapped by Shasta looming above to the north, Mt Lassen etc to east, and the Trinity Alps etc the west. But the city itself is basically an asphalt hell. The fire entering Santa Rosa last year proved that paved-over burbs can be affected; but the real risk is the tentacles of Redding which are semi-rural and actually extend into grasslands and brush. So, in this case, those tentacles are capable of drawing fire into city itself, and then of it getting ahold of all those plastics, gas lines, and unattended junk which people ignore as fire hazards. It certainly happened here twenty years ago with freeze-killed eucalyptus groves in the especially lethal Oakland hills fire, which destroyed even the water storage infrastructure the fire dept relied on. And it will happen again because nearby burbs have already forgotten that dire lesson. There was a close call last summer. But the climate is also conspicuously changing for the worse. Big fires are now a year-long possibility, even probability.

  5. #5

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    Re: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    The last I heard the fire was already in the northern edge of Redding. One of the TV stations had to evacuate their premises. I can't tell from San Diego if they are back on the air or not. I hate to see fire in the city. It is built so close together I can visualize it as one huge inferno.

  6. #6
    Les
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    Re: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    The brush is right down explosive (much like in many areas of Calif) and 110 temps don't help Redding much. As a norm I go camping with buds (Summer), but the last 6yrs or so I've taken the coastal route via Oregon, naturally taking my sweet time....and it's a WAY nicer drive than sweating on I-5. We hardly use A/C here....so that just fits into my mo.

    Les

  7. #7
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    Coastal Oregon has also had its catastrophic fires. Last year the usually lush Eagle Creek and and Multnomah Falls of the Columbia River Gorge was dry, and was instantly set ablaze by brats throwing firecrackers. My Grandmother over on the even wetter coast itself owned five thousand acres of old growth fir forest, which was the tiny amount of what escaped the gigantic Tillamook burn of 1933, one of the biggest fires in US history. But now monster burns like that are getting common. They've gone gigantic in Alberta, and are even a distinct risk now in southern Alaska. These are timber crown fires, which can move explosively under windy conditions. Here in Calif, the chaparral brush is full of creosote and is engineered by nature to burn once it's mature. When that happened on a regular basis due to lightning or Indians setting fires, it amounted to little more than a periodic haircut. But now these areas are broken up by the intrusion of roads and development and prematurely desiccate, just like tropical forests. And all that people activity brings lots of opportunities for fires to start at the worst possible times.

  8. #8
    multiplex
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    Re: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Moe View Post
    It is very bad.

    Here in the Midwest, the local news shows a 48 state map that has fire icons as large as each state, so it looks like the entire West is on fire.

    Good luck!
    we see that here in new england too,
    the whole place is ablaze ..

    good luck and a whole lot of rain !
    john

  9. #9
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    The Redding fire is moving explosively fast, hot enough to generate "fire tornadoes", many structures have been destroyed, and a few lives already lost. Evacuations are on a panic basis. So the news is not good.

  10. #10

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    Re: Now the Carr Fire in Redding

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    The Redding fire is moving explosively fast, hot enough to generate "fire tornadoes", many structures have been destroyed, and a few lives already lost. Evacuations are on a panic basis. So the news is not good.
    Don't know if one is worse than the other. Explosive fast mover compared to Hawaii where you watch for a week while the Lava comes closer and then engulfs the home. At least with the slower Lava fire you have time to get more of your stuff out before destruction hits. But days of anticipation compared to less than an hour of terror - don't know which would be worse.

    Think it was Peter Stackpole who lost a lifetime of negatives and images to the fast moving Oakland Hills fire more than a decade ago. Little warning and total loss. Not an easy one to take.
    ” Never attribute to inspiration that which can be adequately explained by delusion”.

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