It's Santa Anna time again - and Calif is on fire. Again.

There are apparently several brushfires now established near LA. I've heard Slymar and Granada Hills are the worst areas. It's jumped the 5. Apparently a mobile home park has been lost (not sure if it's the same fire or one of the others.)  KABC is covering it livestream. As usual.

And people wonder why I haven't got any desire to move back there.... 

Yeah, so now Sonoma and San Bernardino are going up. Pretty impressive windspeeds. Ah, yes. 97F and like 2% humidity. That just hurts to think about, really. That kinda hot and dry is just really unpleasant.

https://abc7.com/wildfires-forcing-evacuations-from-southern-california-to-wine-country/5643356/

https://ktla.com/2019/10/24/more-than-15k-sce-customers-without-power-as-critical-fire-weather-threatens-socal/

https://ktla.com/2019/10/24/mandatory-evacuations-ordered-in-old-water-fire-burning-in-san-bernardino/

We just got back. Apparently Santa Clarity looked scary for a minute there, but people are back in their homes and containment looks like it might be increasing.

The whole ‘shutting off the power’ to prevent fires is a sad sad state of affairs. But probably quite valid given they started the Camp and Thomas fires... and the billions people are suing them for... but makes California proper third world with an unstable and unreliable grid. Yay years of lack of investment.


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Yeah, really. But damned if they do and damned if they don't. Hurricane-force wind gusts and live high-tension power lines situated over tinder-dry brush are not a good combination. Better to turn them off then have them start a fire.  It's not a municipal entity that runs the power lines it's private companies. And the purpose of private companies is to make money for the stockholders in them.  They'll spend only what is economically feasible for them to spend. Which leaves them in the unenviable position of taking terrible liability risks as the climate now goes down the tubes, or shutting the power off.

The voters have repeatedly voted down a number of measures to try to mitigate the situation a bit  - they don't want to pay for it.  So, my sympathy is limited for people howling about the power having to be shut off to keep them alive and their houses from burning down.

Either way, it looks like they are in for it bad today up north. "Historic wind event" is the term they are bandying around. Ick!   

If you have people in LA, there's a spreading fire at the 405 through the Supulveda Pass (again!), near the Getty. They are expecting 40mph sustained winds for the next several hours. ABC is streaming live on YouTube to cover it. It's jumped the 405.  Haven't been able to tell if there are other fires in the area - it appears so - as they are focusing on this one. MountainGate and Mandeville Canyon communities are evac'ing, as is Mount St. Mary College.

Evac warnings have gone out from Mulholland Drive down to Sunset Boulevard and from the 405 over to the PCH.

sh*t!! Glad I drove through there Friday, instead of today!

It's so crazy how there is that rugged terrain entirely surrounded by really built up areas (oh the sprawl!).