We use a lot of “portable classrooms” around here, also known as “yard debris” after hurricanes.

Well, at least you don’t have to worry about heavy available fuel, if there is a fire.

If you don’t have the right air filters on vehicles the grit gets in the oil and you get to walk. It does nothing good to a jet engine, and turns radomes into tissue paper. It gets into the food and water – everything. A shower, if you are lucky enough to have running water, leaves you standing in a mud puddle, and towels are sandpaper.

The pictures from Sydney look like they were taken on Mars. The Opera House looks like a Worm breeching on Dune. Very weird.

Dust storms are bad. I was in Cambodia when the storms hit Melb in ’83. I saw photo’s later at a gallery. Looked very freaky. The news said the dust is very fine and dangerous for anyone with respiratory problems and young children. I survived a severe sandstorm in the ME. That’s dangerous! When the wind is howling, you may as well be standing in front of a sand-blaster.

We had hail and tornadoes as a regular feature when my Dad was stationed outside of Wichita Falls, Texas. It was marble to golf ball sized stuff, and you definitely wanted to be under cover when the storm hit.

Your Spring and Summer are shaping up to be as bad as last year, so, after you finish your course work, don’t forget to plan your fire escape.

Actually, the worse of what’s going on in your neighborhood for me is the dust storms. I really hated dust storms. You have to pull everything apart to clean it out before you dare to start equipment.

I got caught in a hailstorm in Sydney many years ago. It’s seriously like shrapnel! I saw a car get seriously dented and windows smashed while I cowered under a bridge nearby (well, I didn’t ‘cower’, but I was very cautious and prudent!) 😉 Hail in NSW is damned serious stuff! I rained tadpoles here in Melb when i was a kid once. LOL I was told many years later that sometimes when it’s very hot and dry suddenly, water in lakes and estuaries, creeks etc where frogs lay eggs can evaporate and expose the eggs and they can get sucked up with the evaporating water, and will come down when it rains. Was very strange at the time. 🙂

Good luck with all the fires! I hope they are controlled quickly and everyone is safe!

There is an ugly High over Denver that gifted them with snowfall, and three Lows between LA, and SD. The Lows are sucking in the sinking air from the High.

September is always SD hottest month. The marine layer finally burns off and the sun works overtime to make up for the comfortable summer temperatures.

I still have a hard time believing triple digit temperatures in the Bay area. I don’t remember ever being there when I didn’t need a sweater.

Oh yeah, the cause of this trough of low pressure? Well, hot air rises, remember? What happens when you have a hot El Nino current in a place where it’s not supposed to be? …
.-= last blog ..Is there a right to health care? =-.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/ventura-county-fire-burns-6000-acres-caused-by-spontaneous-combustion-of-manure.html
.-= last blog ..Schools Slow to get Food Recall Notification =-.

Actually, I rank both of them as terrorists. I ignored Earth First until they lit a subdivision under construction. You can’t control a fire, and fire fighters have enough to do without someone committing arson. New York is correct, in my mind, when they link arson and bombing as the same crime in the Penal Law.

They have airtankers and the heavy lift choppers working already. The winds are causing spot fires and it started on the bottom of a slope just off the road.

There are a lot of aerial assets in the area to stop this, as has been shown with the two fires that started yesterday.

It smells like arson.