SoCal wildfires

One of the many blazes around Southern California is about 15 miles from the WildBird office building. Since it started Sunday afternoon, the Santiago Canyon fire created a light-brown haze that covers part of the sky; I still can see pale blue sky while looking east through the window in my office.

The winds seem to have calmed a bit here. The trees aren't waving as frantically as before.

When the fire started yesterday, the winds quickly carried the smoke south and west toward the ocean. The brown cloud made the rising moon look orange-red, and dusk came early. It was surreal. At one point, I saw lightning through my apartment's south-facing window, and then the power went out briefly.

I'm not terribly familiar with the area that burned but think a fair amount of it is undeveloped hills and wonder how much the fire will affect the birds and wildlife. My condolences go out to people who lost irreplaceable items.

Local coverage appears here, with a photo gallery of yesterday's events.