The middle of August started off as normal as can be expected with the the “new normal” under the cloud of a global pandemic. It is the time of year when San Francisco can get some humidity from the remnants of tropical storms coming up from Mexico.
This is not an ordinary year though. This year, we had a heat wave that lasted a full week (much longer than usual) and tropical storms rolled through the Bay Area bringing thunder and lightning. The lightning sparked hundreds of fires - some very small and easily contained - others in places so remote and rugged that they could not be easily reached by firefighters. The result: the third stage of the 2020 apocalypse. All of a sudden wildfires started burning to the North, East and South of San Francisco. There were so many, firefighters could not respond to them all. The fires exploded in size and quickly burned thousands of square miles and hundreds of homes. The number of fires and their size and destruction was on a scale never seen before. It was terrifying.
For San Francisco, this not only brought anxiety and concern for those in nearby communities, it also brought smoke. Until a few years ago, San Francisco rarely had an issue with wildfire smoke. But over the last few years, wildfires have gotten progressively worse, and wind patterns have changed bringing smoke from distant fires into the region. Under COVID, we are getting accustomed to staying inside more, but I still need my daily walkabout with my camera.
Here are a few captures from those two weeks: