Dry thunderstorms kicked off the fire season 2020 in California about six weeks ago. At first we just had a few fires, initiated by lightning.
One of them behind Waddell Beach:
One of the fires that would later become the SZU Lightning complex
As the fire came closer to the city limits of Santa Cruz, anyone living North and East of the city limits was ordered to evacuate. For one evening it was not clear that we would not be evacuated, too.
While the risk that our house would burn was low – we still had the San Lorenzo river and Highway 1 between us the and fires – it was not zero. So on the night of August 20th we made a list of the items that we would take with us in case of an evacuation, we packed our car so that we could live out of it for a few days and we packed our go-bags: A set of clothing, food, water, documents and cash.
Friends from the Westside came over to live with us, they were closer to the fire and they did not have a river and a highway to shield them. They brought two cats and a fish with them.
The next morning the fire had largely stopped advancing towards Santa Cruz. It became clear that the city would not be evacuated. So that was good.
Unfortunately many other fires expanded or started all over California and about a week later also in Oregon. Smoke pollution in varying degrees has since then been a constant reminder of the dire situation the West coast finds itself in.
Good days are the ones where the Air Quality Index (AQI) is below 100. While that is not great, you can do stuff outside without getting a headache. Most days however are bad days with AQI over 150, on some days we surpass 200.
In California there are about 25 large fires currently burning, 6 of those – while still burning – already made the list of the 20 biggest fires ever recorded in the state.
And while the fires are somewhat under control in California as of today, it is getting worse in Oregon.