Had to pack a bag and get the hell outta Dodge. The Angeles National Forest has been burning for days, and the air in Glendale is hardly fit to breathe.Last Wednesday, I flew back to California coping with the tail end of a cold. I still haven’t shaken that cold yet. It hurts to swallow, my sinuses are stuffed, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since I got back. The air was scraping my eyeballs, and I’ve been coughing up disgusting slime.
So I broke towards the ocean. Hoping a couple days in Santa Monica can clear my respiratory system up.
I feel better already. I stood on a bluff as a cool breeze rolled in off the Pacific, and congratulated myself for good thinking.
Then I turned 180 degrees and faced east... and saw a mushroom cloud hanging over some far-distant mountains.
This is called a pyrocumulus cloud; sometimes a forest fire creates its own weather like that. Trip part is... that’s not even the fire I fled from! That’s a different out-of-control wildfire... in the San Bernardino National Forest.
UPDATE (08/31/09): Okay, this is bizarre. I’m right near the ocean. It’s sunset. I stick my head out the hotel window, looking east. I can see the San Bernardino Mountains, gotta be more than 75 miles away.
And I can see the flames from here!
13 comments:
I was in Long Beach this weekend, and that's what it looked like on Saturday...scary.
It's not even that bad yet - wait for the Santa Ana winds to kick in.
This is called a pyrocumulus cloud, and that’s how out-of-control the forest fire has gotten.
I'm always learning something new here. :-)
And what a pleasant surprise, too. Just today I was watching a BBC doc called "Cloudspotting." I got a bit curious after seeing this picture of Citi Field. It's called a mammatus cloud.
I came back to LA with a bang; 103 degree weather and a huge smoke cloud to top it off :-(
Good thing I'm looking for a place in Santa Monica....
Glad you're safe.
^ Thank you, Mike.
UBM, All mom stuff but:
1-Try to limit talking
2-honey and lemon
3-plenty of liquids warm and cold
4-see doc just in case
Take care of yourself.
^ Thanks, la.
I flew out on Friday and it was big. I flew back in on Sunday and it was a conflagration which has only gotten worse.
Thought about you when they closed all the schools in Glendale - glad to know you're breathing clean.
Let me know if you need anything cuz I'm write around the corner.
Thanks for posting that picture, bklyn6. As a Mets fan, I'm happy to know that at least one cool thing happened there this summer.
Hear it may burn for at least the next two weeks. Ugh.
Do what you gotta do to breath and stay well!
^ My immune system is gettin' the upper hand...
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