Kincade Fire

There is a smoke haze over the coastal hills, whose line we see from our northwest-facing deck, this morning. It was already there yesterday. Once you get up into the hills, as we did on a bike ride yesterday afternoon, you can see that the haze also covers the lowlands towards the east, and the Bay. It makes your eyes prick if you stay outside; I came back from our ride with a sore throat, so perhaps it was foolish to head out, but once you started uphill under the redwoods the air felt, at least, cleaner, as if the smoke were trapped high up in the treetops.

So far we haven’t lost power, though our county is on the list of those threatened with cut-offs. Since we live along a dry creek-bed, despite some recent cleaning out of the brushwood, we do think of fire. It doesn’t take much to start one in this parched environment.

6 pm: Strong smell of smoke when I step outside; the coast hills are pretty much hidden by the smoke and it is visibly hanging in the air. It’s become windy here.