I took this a week ago, around 4pm on the 210 freeway, in Upland. The smoke is from the Triangle Complex fire which started in Santa Ana Canyon just outside of Corona and spread to the Chino Hills and Diamond Bar. Hundreds of homes were lost and debris landed in our garden that had traveled at least ten miles.
Brushfires have a distinctive smell. You learn that smell as a child and when you step outside on a windy day the scent makes your heart speed up, causes a little fear even among those whose houses are safe, but imagine what that first whiff does to the heart rate of people living in canyons and on hillsides.
The Santa Anas are strong winds that spring up when the valleys have a few days in a row that are a little warmer, after a few colder days. The winds dry out the air and a small grassfire that would easily be put out on a calmer day will race to become a wall of flame, climbing into the trees and leaping across roads and freeways.
The fires are out for now but brushfire season is all year now because of the changing climate. More Santa Ana winds predicted soon.
I have a shot from the middle of IOWA that I believe was influenced by the Western fires of a few years ago.
Clear Lake Iowa, July, 2006
http://flickr.com/photos/timtimes/3062553640/
Enjoy.
Wow. Nice photo.
You’re talking about the fires in Oklahoma and Texas? If so, that’s a really long way for the smoke to be travelling.
Yeah, and the only reason I believe there’s a connection is because I heard somebody talking about it on the radio when I was there. Otherwise I might not have noticed or taken the time to photograph. I don’t know exactly where the fires were, but it certainly seems like they would have been far enough away not to have any effect on an Iowa sunset. On the other hand, wasn’t that the year that half of California burnt down?
Epic natural disasters can produce effects far, far away from their point of origin. I had fallout (volcanic ash) on the hood of my car when Mt. St. Helens blew up and I was in Colorado at the time.
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Just follow the link for some of the best topical humor, specifically directed at me by a comment over at an A/V theater forum I frequent.
The subject is big decks.
http://thetimchannel.com/?p=267
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Christmas Elves attacked by Angry Parents…
http://thetimchannel.com/?p=284
It’s what I do.
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Hi Jeanne I had no other way of reaching you, You were at my site and asked about Emanuel Perady. That was all the info I had. If you would like to put something together I will be happy to put it up. E. Mail the info you would like to put I will be happy to do it.