There was a thunderstorm that went across the whole of Northern California last Saturday afternoon through the night. The lightening was very unusual for around here, at least the intensity of it. There was not much if any rain with it and the lightening strikes caused over 800 fires over Northern California. The smoke is so bad here in Northern California that you can't get away from it. Can't see the close hills, or in some places can't see across a field. Traffic wasn't able to get through on some roads because the smoke was too thick to see.
I was out of town over in Tuolumne County in the Sierra Foothills and we got some lightening and I gues there were a couple of fires. But most of it was north. When we came back on Sunday the sky was full of smoke clear across the state. We saw one fire, or at least the smoke billowing up, in Napa County. There are so many fires that they've grouped them into areas. Mendocino County, Lake County, Yuba County, Butte County. There's other ones near Monterey where they've already had a bunch of fires this year. I'm not even trying to remember the names of them all. It is very dry everywhere. There is no wind to get the smoke out, but I guess that's good as there is no wind to drive the fires either.
The smoke is bad all over. My brother and his wife were off camping up by Nevada City and had to come home because they couldn't breathe. The smoke has gone over the Sierra and down into the Reno area of Nevada. It looks like California is burning up. But it isn't quite that bad. Just hard on the throat and eyes. I wish I could find a satellite photo of the smoke, but I haven't found one yet. I wouldn't want to be riding in this kind of air - wouldn't be able to breathe too well.
The Midwest is flooding, and the West is burning up. Weird!
