Last week was not so good out here set a new record high for the day,  only 115. As well as the Mexicans sending tropical moister up there west coast so we had clouds with no rain but plenty of thunder on the 13th to the 16th. Something like 400+ lighting fires.Down to a hand full  now but with one of 300,000+ acres you don't need many.

Generally that southern moister gets up to San Diego and turns east helping cool Arizonan down or meets up with south eastern moister out of the Gulf of Mexico to make the flash floods. But this bunch came a bit north all the way to San Francisco or a little more. But finally the smoke is out of here for the first time since last Monday. Most days you could barely see a mile it was so thick and low. The closest bigger fire is 50 miles or more away from where Allis G and I are.  G lives over where the secret whole in the hills is that lets the coastal cool air sneak through most days so he is 10 to 20 degrees cooler than I most all summer. But I think someone slammed it shut by miss take last week. Hopefully this week is better.

Generally you have 5  to 10 years before the brush grows back so you can have a major fire in the same place. But with the great effort put forth from the 40's on with fire suppression there is so much fuel in the forested areas(look at Mel's post in the construction equip section for pics) they are burning much hotter than they use to. This does kill far more trees than the way nature use to do things. The chaparral low growing brush is the biggest part of the fuel in any wildfire.

Not much confer forest in my area so cannot say much from observation of that (but again look at what Mel has said). For many reasons where chaparral brush grows not much grass ever grows even with the brush all burned away. The chaparral will come back from the roots most times in only a month or 2 after a fire before there is a rain. Surprisingly the young growth is very green and lush looking and is hard to get lit on fire until it is 5 years old or so. At which time the oldest growth starts dying back providing tinder to help a fire burn. Even if grass grows and gets on fire it is much easier to control.

But besides the growth of burnable material on the ground geography plays a big roll in fire behavior. Fire travels up hill much,much faster than down hill. Canyons and ridges all come into play in what the fire fighters call chimneys. As hot air is rising the chimney will heat and many times spontaneously combust ahead of the main fire sometimes as much as mile ahead of the main fire. Many times the the top of the hills that form a chimney you have a fabulous view looking out for miles in many cases,so always where the new comes want to build their house to have this long view looking out.   

Natures way was to burn everything every 10 to 50 years. All the low brush and trees will not be killed even in the hotter burning fires of modern times. California is a big place 10,4765,440 acres so burning a 1,000,000 a year   it still take a few years to burn it all.

But with a little luck  and forethought you can live in California and not burn up. But other times nothing is enough.