Gosh darn east wind event hit us yesterday. Didn't affect us here, except it was windy and hot, but no nearby fires, crossing my fingers.
And strange temperatures. Like my brother texted me that where he works, Coos Bay, by the southern Oregon coast, it was 94 degrees. This is unheard of for that part of Oregon. He's always the one telling me how cool it is down there, when its 100 here. He doesn't like heat, so the cool coastal weather suits him just fine.
Lots of people had their power shut off, all over Oregon beginning Friday morning. This was in areas where power companies deemed it dangerous for the power to stay on. They're called Public Safety Power Outages and hit parts of Linn County, the county where I live, but only in parts of Sweet Home, Holly, not sure about Lacomb. Branches and trees that fall on active power lines cause a lot of fires, then the power companies get sued. So....the power outages are to protect people from fires and protect the power companies from getting hit in the pocketbook, where it hurts.
East winds hit us two years ago, Labor Day eve, only they were much worse than this event and 11% of the Cascade forest acreage was destroyed in a matter of days with raging hurricane fires blown down through the river canyons. Along with thousands of homes.
The Cedar Creek fire map is not out today, since its only 4:00 a.m. I had to go to bed early, to calm my anxiety over the fires. I think about the animals and birds dying and the people losing everything. I can't help it. So I'm up early.
The Cedar Creek fire near Waldo lake did turn, with the east winds, and has made a run west, back towards Oakridge and Westfir, where last night, level 3 Go Now evacuations were ordered. All those people, crowding one two lane highway west, back towards Eugene. There are backroads you can take if you know them. You can check out this short of the fire on youtube, if you're interested. It's an aerial of the fire. It had no imbed button, unfortunately.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Ydk3aIbVtGg?feature=share
Late afternoon, a grass and brush fire began in south Salem. But in the photos that came out of it before dark, looked like there were more fire trucks than fire. It got jumped on fast, by very very prepared fire districts. They hope they got most of it mostly out before dark. I saw one desperate post on facebook. Someone in Level 3 had 40 horses and needed help getting them out. I hope they're ok this morning.
When I got up a few minutes ago, I saw on facebook another fire began at a state park up south and east of Portland by Estacada, sparking more Go Now evacuation orders. But the perimeter map looked like the area affected was small. So far at least.
At least our east wind event will be short lived. Should be dying out by afternoon with the wind soon to come out of the south and maybe bring some moisture with it. There was that low level hurricane down off Baja.
Sunset was a little smokey last night but pretty. I'll likely be in my pool again today, keeping cool.
The sun is a smokey orange.
I only had a handful of sunflowers come up this year, not sure why.
And a few other flowers. The bumblebees love the Rose of Sharon.
Most of the bees I see around my place are bumblebees. Lots of them.
Fingers crossed for you. Last year we had a strong wind from a direction trees did not expect or were prepared for and so many were felled by the wind, onto houses, power lines and various infrastructure. Wouldn't your wet weather normally come from the north?
ReplyDeleteOur wet fronts come from the north and northwest, the west, and sometimes from the south. South winds are pretty common around here, and more common on the coast. But east winds--not common.
DeleteOut of control fires terrify me. They are so destructive, and like you I feel for the plants, birds, animals caught in their path.
ReplyDeleteThank you for also including your floral beauties - and the bees.
Stay safe, stay cool.
They are destructive and unpredictable and create their own weather. So far, the Cedar Creek fire, has spared Oakridge and Westfir, being pushed north yesterday, instead of farther west, when the winds turned, and began to blow from the south earlier than expected.
DeleteOur average summertime high was 79 a few years ago. I've now long count of how many +90 days we've had this summer, but I think they constituted the majority.
ReplyDeleteYour photos were great.
I knew our average summer high's used to be far lower. I remember low to mid 80's being thought of as hot, and great weather. Now it seems like extremes are normal, with the average being rare. My brother and his wife moved to Idaho a few years ago. Now my brother hates the summers there as the last two have had large numbers of days over 100, when you can't even be outside.
DeleteI find it interesting that the power companies shut down the power year after year rather than, oh, I don't know, maybe figuring out a way to bury their power lines so there wouldn't be a fire danger with falling debris. But that would cost way more, I expect, than just turning off the power.
ReplyDeleteThere are fixes for these things, but the people in power don't do the fixes. Deep sigh.
They seek the lowest level of service possible to get by and make tons of money I guess. On this block, the lines are underground, but they're not without trouble. They've been replaced twice due to power glitches and surges. I'm so happy after they replaced all the meters as my power bill went down to almost half what it had been, meaning my old meter never really worked and I was overcharged for years.
DeleteFires are so scary. I hope that the winds die down as predicted. The flower pictures are very pretty. Bumble bees are the main kinds of bees that I see here, too.
ReplyDeleteThey are terrifying.
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