Sunny With a Chance of Fire Tornadoes?

[kevin_standlee]

Of course, we knew we'd have heat when we moved to Fernley, although in past years we have escaped much of the heat by spending several weeks traveling to Westercon and Worldcon. What's peculiar is seeing that the temperature right now (39°C / 102°F) is the same here in Fernley as it is in San Jose. The only difference is that the relative humidity is only 13% here in Fernley and about 25% in San Jose, Neither humidity is that bad. The swamp cooler here is keeping the heat at bay.

Still, nothing beats the first ever National Weather Service Fire Tornado Warning issued for the area near the big fire near Loyalton, California, about 75 miles / 120 km west of Fernley. There's no danger from it here in Fernley, but of course the fire is pumping out lots of smoke, some of which is drifting this way. I'm glad I've done brush clearance from our property line, although I noticed that someone has decided that the fire break I cleared must be a road and has driven over it, so maybe I need to put a pile of dirt across it to discourage such antics.

Comments

[katster]

Thank you, Carr Fire, for introducing us all to the concept of fire tornadoes! Even going to Redding at Christmastime, I was still clearly able to see that some of the damage was wind-related as opposed to fire-related. That is, generally fires don't rip the bark off plants, for example. They rated that thing as roughly equivalent to an EF-3.

[kevin_standlee]

I didn't hear if they had an actual firenado over at Loyalton, but while it's impressive to watch, it's not something I ever want to up close and personal with.