Shout out to all the Cali Members

[solar pete]

Howdy All,

I saw on the TV the fires going on in California and just wanted to do a shout out to all our Cali members, hope you and yours are all safe and well, best regards from the SPT community.

[J.P.M.]

Thank you for the kind words. Nothing new here. I can easily see the smoke from Idlewild on the other side of Mt. Palomar that topped out at ~ 50 - 60,000 feet as well as and the smaller fires in Fallbrook & environs. Feel sorry for the poor bastards up near Reading w/12,000 structures threatened. Even after the fires are out, the mudslide legacy next winter can be as bad.

I'll still take it over winters in upstate NY that make for a 6 month war/bunker mentality once a year.

[Mike90250]

Thanks for asking, here in Mendocino County, about 30mi east of the Mendocino Complex fires, they are downwind from me, just getting general haze and smoke.
today, i've started the electrolyte change out of my NiFe bank, and will be posting more about it. Lots of work, but am running a eu2000 via auto-transformer into the XW to keep things alive, using a sacrificial battery bank of 4 group 27 deep cycle batts, (hence needing a gennie to float them overnight .20180729_175228.png

View from by back porch. 3 weeks ago, a 13 acre fire started up about 1 mile west of me, normally the wind is from the west, but that day it was from the east
and kept it out of my yard. Lucky so far. here's that view to the west

20180714_103443.png

And our state bird overhead that day:

20180714_105249c.png

Water dropper chopper ! Can't see the bucket, it's pointing right at the lens (the black dot)

[sdold]

Down here in the Sacramento valley and all of the foothills, everything looks like the pic below. About 3-10 miles visibility, but everywhere smells like sitting in the downwind chair at a campfire. This was today in the Sierra foothills, hundreds of miles from the fires.

colfax smoke.jpg

[bcroe]

Fri morning I noticed a haze, which was later identified as left coast smoke blown here in IL. Bruce Roe

[Mike90250]

The fire here is huge, and we had one smokey day, visibility was less than a mile. But our onshore breeze from the west has returned, cleared the air, and dispersed it around the country.

Major cause of the mega fires is years of small fire suppression, resulting in huge fuel loads building up over the last 60 years. The First People regularly burned the grasslands, and natural lightning strike fires evolved a stable environment. But now the huge brush load burns fierce enough to consume redwood's insulating bark that has withstood small fires for thousands of years, oak canopies are consumed by the brush fire, and whole ecosystems are ravaged, ironically, by Smokey the Bear and his clan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammagenitus_(cloud) 40 miles east of me.

20180804_161756.png

[SunEagle]

Besides the danger to people and wildlife my concern is the reduce production from solar due to the amount of smoke in the air. Lets hope you get wet and windy days in the near future.

[J.P.M.]

Besides the danger to people and wildlife my concern is the reduce production from solar due to the amount of smoke in the air. Lets hope you get wet and windy days in the near future.

Anecdotally, there was a 700+ acre fire burning about 20 miles from me and upwind 2 days ago, and until the wind shifted, the immediate effect was noticeable on my graphical output. Not severe, but maybe a 5 % reduction or so.

[Mike90250]

It's back ----

http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/2277

CAMP fine, 6 mi south of Chico, CA. went to +20,000 acres in 12 hours, 0% contained

I'm near the coast line, 90 miles west of the origin. The northern border of the smoke plume is extremely sharp, half the town is under smoke
but a mile north and half the town is sunny.

My PV shut down at 2:30 pm today - lack of light !! Not low power, it detected sunset on 2 different arrays & controllers.

Town of Paradise is reported - destroyed.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/fires/article221349345.html

CAMP_Fire_Nov2018.jpg

[SunEagle]

Dang Mike. I really wish CA can put out them fires quicker. Stay safe my friend.

[Mike90250]

CAMP fire , northern Cal, 70,000 acres this am, and at the border of Chico

Ventura County (So Cal) has 2 fires going, both about 8,000 acres as of this AM

http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents

[solar pete]

I hope it rains, that might slow it up, stay safe peeps

[J.P.M.]

I hope it rains, that might slow it up, stay safe peeps

No rain in the forecast for So.CA for the next week or so. Probably the same for No. CA.

Fall tends to be the dryer time of year for most of CA with high pressure systems setting up around/over the 4 corners area where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona all touch one another. Those high pressure systems drive hot, dry air with dew points in the single digit F. range to the SW at high velocities. One spark from a trimmer/careless cigarette toss/campfire/etc. and things get bad very quickly.

[Mike90250]

We're down into the upper 20's at night, and <10% humidity and everything is bone dry

[M j hodgson]

I have got 4 panels now needing new tedlar backing have bought tedlar with insulted backing how do I put it on please Michael