it's the end of the world as we know it and I don't feel fine
 

The air is filled with a thick, pungent smoke that turns everything a hazy shade of yellow.
It looks like the apocalypse, and it fits perfectly with the way everything feels.

We just shrug and say, "this is the new norm" . . .

Which fire is your potential new neighbor?

Thing is, it actually should have been the norm (or close to it) for the last hundred years or so. I just read a great in-depth article about how the west coast ecology is supposed to burn--there are literal plants that have evolved to only sprout after going through a fire season--and we know this, but because 1.) fire suppression is big business and 2.) residents always fight against controlled burns because they make the air a little smoggy for a few days, the fuel surplus is now well beyond control. California burns 20,000 acres a year, when they should be burning a million in order to keep the ecology in balance. That deficit has been building and building, and one way or another, it's all going to burn off eventually.

None of the fires are very close to me, but there's a lot of them, and high winds pushing the smoke out to the coast. Cities 2-3 hours from me are evacuating.

The Native Americans knew this, they tried to tell us we needed to do controlled burns.

Indians burned the prairies so the Buffalo would have fresh grass.

A guy in San Francisco said today the day sky was orange and a lot of soot was falling but couldn't smell it.
Another guy near Portland said orange sky and strong smell but no soot.

(though i would be remiss not to post the 2016 update:
Attachment 71381
Attachment 71382

:lol2:

Clackamas county fire is pulling out.

there's prettymuch an unbroken line of fire across the west coast right now. about a thousand miles.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...d6f5eb0df0.jpg

five or six of the ten largest fires in california history are burning right now.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehk0zKXU...pg&name=medium

It's grim...

♫ Flying over Rockies they’re looking mighty fine
Here comes the Cascades just like a dotted line
The Sierra Nevadas outline the South Cal hoards
♪ Here come aircraft bright colored chems on board
The fire dudes arrive, running the wrong way
Just one thing in common on all minds today
♫ We see from way up high
They got the fire down below

NASA
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/im...-us-west-coast

This was-- staring directly at the sun, at 10am yesterday morning.

Oof.