November Smoke Out

I hadn't heard much about fires in my area, of course, we haven't been suffering the Santa Anas that have been blowing to the north and east. We have been influenced by the winds as our daytime sea breezes have not been blowing, so the dust and other stuff has been working its way into the area. But, Saturday morning it was very windy and as I went over the Buena Park Mall I noticed the heavy smoke to the east and south.

After a little shopping at WalMart, I noticed the smell of smoke was in the air and an ash drizzle was starting. A few minutes at the Farmer's Market in the parking lot and it was home to spend the day inside. I have just been recovering from the series of Santa Anas that had plugged up my sinuses and lungs a couple of weeks ago.

I'm standing at La Palma Ave and Stanton Ave. looking to the east. The left edge of that smoke to the left of the 40 MPH sign, is the Yorba Linda area. To the right of that and straight down La Palma Ave, would be the Anaheim Hills area. It's very smoky to the east and south, but we are in an area of relative clear -– for the moment. Looking to the west, there's Knott's Berry Farm, and as the morning progresses the smoke is drifting up to the north a little. It looked like the smoke was hitting a westerly breeze off-shore and piling up, but as our winds moved from the north-east to the east, it starts dispersing in our direction.

The Yorba Linda/Anaheim Hills area that the news people are zoomed in on is about 15 miles from my apartment. That's probably the closest major fires have come to me in the last 15 years.

During the afternoon we experienced smoke-overcast, and as the wind direction changed, the mass of smoke moved to the north so that late in the day the southern sky was mostly clear and the north was smoke filled.

Tom