800+ Northern California Fires From Dry Lightning Storm

[nidaba]

So over the weekend there was this crazy lightning storm where I live and apparently across most of northern California. It was actually kind of awesome, the thunder was the loudest I have ever heard, really shook the walls, and the lightning looked amazing. There was very little rain though, it would sprinkle just a bit and then stop but the thunder and lightning kept on going.

The lightning looked amazing but 8000 dry lightning strikes during a drought can have some pretty nasty results. =/ There are over 800 fires burning in the northern part of the state now and it is pretty crazy.

Hundreds of fires sparked by rare lightning storm - Yahoo! News

SAN FRANCISCO - In less than a day, an electrical storm unleashed nearly 8,000 lightning strikes that set more than 800 wildfires across Northern California — a rare example of "dry lightning" that brought little or no rain but plenty of sparks to the state's parched forests and grasslands.
The weekend storm was unusual not only because it generated so many lightning strikes over a large geographical area, but also because it struck so early in the season and moved in from the Pacific Ocean. Such storms usually don't arrive until late July or August and typically form southeast of California.
"You're looking at a pattern that's climatologically rare. We typically don't see this happen at this time of summer," said John Juskie, a science officer with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. "To see 8,000, that's way up there on the scale."
Thousands of firefighters battled the blazes Tuesday from the ground and air. The lightning-caused fires have scorched tens of thousands of acres and forced hundreds of residents to flee their homes, though few buildings have been destroyed, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

It's pretty scary. haha I am fine where I am because I am in town, but all the outlying areas near me are pretty bad off:

Moon Fire: 2000 acres near Paradise Peak, no containment.
Barley Fire: 600 acres west of Graves Ranch near Igo/Ono, no containment.
Upper Grass Fire: 100 acres near French Gulch, no containment.
Lower Grass Fire: 100 acres near Buckhorn Summit.
Here are updates on the blazes CalFire has been fighting since Saturday:
Democrat Fire: 360 acres near Keswick, no estimated containment.
Donkey Mine Fire: 600 acres south of Highway 299 and west of Oak Run Road, 90 percent containment.
Kirkman Fire: 2,500 acres off Highway 44 near Dersch Road, 80 percent containment.
Kilarc Reservoir Fire: 20 acres near the Pacific Gas and Electric Co.-owned lake, 100 percent containment.
Pine Fire: 2,000 acres on Backbone Ridge near Jones Valley, 60 percent containment.
Shingletown Fire: 475 acres, 100 percent containment.
Venture Fire: 1,500 acres in the Hat Creek/Cassel area, 75 percent containment.
Withrow Fire: 230 acres north of Shingletown, 80 percent containment.
Zogg Mine Fire: 74 acres in the Igo/Ono area, 100 percent containment. However, nearly a half-dozen spot fires continue burning near the main blaze in rugged terrain outside the containment area.

So there are a lot of fires near me, but nothing too threatening. I think we have quite a few members from Cali so I was just wondering how everyone else is doing. And if anyone else got to check out the awesome weekend storms.
The air quality here is really bad because of the fires and they are telling people to avoid working outside, but I mean, come on. =/ It's not like you can call into work until the fires are taken care of. So I feel really bad for our maintenance staff, they are wearing masks, but still.

ETA: Picture of the fire maybe closest to me at Shasta Bally:

[/url]

[X2thaU]

life is rough

[anurok]

As bad as those fires may be that is nothing like what San Diego and Southern California had to deal with back during firstorm 2003 and firestorm 2007.

All I remember is ash falling everywhere I went and hellfire blazing around me. Fires are a crazy thing that are very hard to control.

Good luck to all of those involved.

[/win]

why is it always cali that gets wildfires besides the douchebags who intentionally light a forest in flames?

[Sarah]

Well I live in Arizona and we had a lightning storm last night and this morning with very little rain, but nothing to the extreme. Though we are in danger of getting fires I don't think anything major occurred.

[Tammy]

Crazy stuff, I'm in socal and nothing too close here are on fire so I havent paid too much attention to it. But fires from dry lightning storms o.o yah ashes carry pretty far, i remember fires few years ago entire sky was orange and ash was everywhere

[The One]

damn. the west seriously needs more rain. too bad all that mid west rain didn't fall over CA.

[krozar]

Isn't there fires all the time in California? Every week the news is talking about a fire there. Maybe they should report when there aren't any fires.

[Ericgamer1]

Actually, the fires that occured in South Cali last year in Oct where in the same place that I was visiting. Except for some burned bases of tree trunks, you could barely even tell there ever was a fire. I guess plant life recovers from a fire really fast because it looked like nothing had changed.