Blue Sky at Last

You can't imagine how monochromatic the past week has been. You can't imagine what it's like to spend a summer day shut up in your house with all the doors and windows closed against the smog and smoke.

Today the air is sparkling clear, and the sky is strangely blue. To celebrate, I set up the solar oven and baked a loaf of bread.

It's not that the fires are out--123 fires are still burning in Mendocino County. I think it's just that the wind has shifted. Last week's offshore winds came from the North and East. Now the wind is coming from the ocean, blowing the smoke into the central valley instead of south to Sonoma County. The lightning strikes that were expected on Saturday and Sunday were postponed until today, but apparently have hit mainly in the Sierra, where there are new fires today.

And here in the North Bay, today's 89-percent humidity (compared with last week's 13 percent) have made it a lot harder for new fires to get started. Unfortunately, there's a long, hot, dry summer ahead of us, with dry lightning becoming even more likely in July and August.