Interesting links and notes on updates to my main website.



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a tale of two cities: don't breathe in Ottawa today

Here's what the PM2.5 looked like in San Diego, when I was there in 2003 and it was surrounded by fires - from a post I made November 3, 2003. Peaked at 150 on October 26, 2003.



and here's what Ottawa's air quality looks like - peaked at 122 so far today. Over 91 is "serious respiratory effects even during light physical activity; people with heart disease, the elderly and children at high risk; increased risk for general population" according to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.



You can track it yourself - OTTAWA CENTRAL: Today's AQI Readings.

Pointer to Ontario Air Quality site via Dave Carter.

Labels: fire, ottawa, ottawasmoke, san diego

posted by Richard at 12:58 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

yesterday's final tally, and San Diego 2007 and 2003



So more like 80-fold increase in hits over normal.

In case you're wondering, they're all doing this MSN/Live search, and picking the third image, a 2003 NASA satellite view of the fires, which (in the search results) points to the image link in the old Dal version of this blog.

Here's a link to the 2007 equivalent, maybe it will get me hits when there's a fire again in 2011.



from http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/socal_wildfires_oct07.html

I don't think I ever wrote up my pithy statements on arriving in San Diego when it was on fire in 2003, so here you go:

We were delayed in Denver due to the fires. As we were finally flying in, there was a line of fire across the mountains. There was a smoke plume we flew into, I assumed we were going to fly out of it, but we never did, we just descended into smoke. You could smell the smoke in the plane in flight, which was kind of freaky. When we landed, I could see ash blowing around on the tarmac. When we stepped outside the airport, instead of the clear blue San Diego sunshine, the sky was grey and the sun literally was a red orb in the sky. It was like arriving in Mordor. My mother described it as "like being inside of an ashtray". We were staying at a lovely resort, but the roses were all covered with ash, and the swimming pool had a floating layer of ash covering its surface.

Labels: fire, meta, san diego

posted by Richard at 08:59 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

San Diego memories

In 2001 I went to San Diego and I was like, "ooh, this is nice".
So in 2003 I went and invited my parents along. This was not so good, as, to quote myself

I'm in San Diego.

To which I would like to add:
San Diego is in the middle of a huge firestorm.
Holy Sh-t.

Manifesto Multilinko (me) - Sunday, October 26, 2003

I really wasn't able to convey to people back home the extent to which San Diego was burning. I finally found a set of satellite image maps to show them. Even then I still don't think they quite grasped it.

But fortunately America learned that lesson, and San Diego never burned again.
Oh wait, four years later... 'Mass migration' as state burns

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- More than a half million people had been ordered from San Diego County homes Tuesday as wildfires rage from the Mexican border to north of Los Angeles.

CNN - October 23, 2007

If you want to get my full experience, I have just retro-tagged my old postings, so you can click the "san diego" label below or follow this san diego label link. They're in chronological order from most recent to earliest - if you want to read in order scroll to the bottom of the page and read up (I don't know how to make them appear in any other order.)

Labels: doom, fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 19:51 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Online NewsHour: California Wildfires -- October 27, 2003

RAY SUAREZ: Is this -- the fire so extensive that it's affecting life even far away from where the flames are actually burning? If you want to move around San Diego County, is it a tough thing to do today?

MAYOR DICK MURPHY: We have basically shut down the county. We've asked employers to keep employees at home. The schools are closed. Several of the freeways are shut down. Everything is at a dead stop. The air quality is horrible, you can imagine with such extensive fires, it's not even healthy to be outside.

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 09:02 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

A typical day in San Diego County would show an "air pollution index" of 15-20 micrograms per cubic meter. An unhealthy day would be 40-65 micrograms per cubic meter.

Here's a chart I did in Excel using data from ftp://ftp.cts.com/users/j/t/jtimmer/
I used the PM2.5 data from downtown San Diego. Based on these data the worst air quality was on October 26th, when it peaked at about 150 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3).
PM2.5 is particles less than or equal to 2.5 microns, measured by mass. Particles that small can't be filtered by your nose or handled by your body, they basically just settle in your lungs.



(image originally at http://flame.cs.dal.ca/~akerman/blog/sdairqual.jpg ALT="[San Diego air quality Oct 25-28, 2003]")

Officials Warn Of Very Poor Air Quality

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 17:06 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

And so was the battle won (I hope).
Click for larger version.



from Sign On San Diego.com

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 16:38 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

I fled San Diego.

Here's some more info on the current situation there:
County of San Diego - Air Pollution Control District - Air Quality Forecast

NOAA - Operational Significant Event Imagery (OSEI) - Events/Fires/

Click for larger version:

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 19:25 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

[San Diego] County's air quality called unhealthy for everyone

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 17:07 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

City of San Diego Emergency Fire Information
Last updated October 27, 2003, 7:30 p.m.

URGENT! In order to maintain enough water pressure to fight fires, residents MUST CONTINUE to conserve water. Use only what is absolutely necessary for health, cooking or for fire suppression. This is an urgent situation and we need the cooperation of all City of San Diego residents and businesses.

Please stay indoors and keep your windows shut. Curtail strenuous activities and breathe through a damp cloth if needed. Stay off the road

from http://www.sannet.gov/newsflash/firealert.shtml

More info:
Online Fire Tracking? Via Slashdot /.

USDA Forest Service Active Fire Maps - Large Fire Incidents

SignOnSanDiego.com - San Diego Union-Tribune

Fiery Paths (GIF image) from San Diego Union-Tribune

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 16:52 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Here's a bigger version of the above image from the NASA Earth Observatory site, without the cities indicated.



Based on the clearest report I saw on TV yesterday, at 3 AM Sunday 26th only 300 acres were burning. Then the dread Santa Ana "Devil Winds" came up. These fast, strong, hot, dry winds blew the fire to a 200,000 acre inferno within hours.

They say it's the worst fires in at least 50 years, other reports say there hasn't been anything this bad since 1935.

I've mostly been watching channel 10 on TV. NBC San Diego is also pretty good.

UPDATE 2003-11-07: In case you're wondering, two hundred thousand acres is about 300 square miles or about 800 square kilometres.

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 10:18 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

San Diego Firestorm 2003, Day 3

The front page and first inside page of USA Today have good info and graphics on the fires today.

This Fire Map shows the situation very well, with the fires to the northeast of San Diego city, but the smoke being blown southwest directly over the city.

The sky is still grey today.
Air quality is "unhealthy", which means restrict your outdoor activities. The only lower rating is "very unhealthy" which would mean basically do not go outside. I have a SARS type face mask breathing filter thing that I wear outside.

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 10:14 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

The fires are to the north and east of here (San Diego).
Unfortunately the "Santa Ana" winds are blowing to the south and west.

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 18:52 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

This should give you a rough idea of the situation around here (San Diego):

California wildfires wreak havoc

The mall was post-apocalyptic. Empty arcades with soot blowing in them.
I bought a watch at Macy's.
It's all quite surreal.

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 16:39 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

San Diego Red Cross

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 12:27 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

I went through the (rather minor) Ontario Power Failure,
my parents went through the (rather major) Hurrican Juan,
now we are all in San Diego Firestorm.

It's like State of Emergency Tour, 2003.

Anyway, so far we are ok, we still have water and power.

In retrospect they never should have flown us in from Denver yesterday.
Flying people into a SoE, not so helpful.

Unless things improve in a couple days, we will probably try to get a flight out.

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 11:17 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

I'm in San Diego.

To which I would like to add:
San Diego is in the middle of a huge firestorm.
Holy Sh-t.

Labels: fire, san diego

posted by Richard at 18:52 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)