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Santa Cruz Indymedia | Environment & Forest Defense | Health, Housing, and Public ServicesFire in the Santa Cruz Mountains: Breaking News
800 acres have already burned in the mountains--Summit Road is closed at Mt. Madonna unless you're headed away from the fire which is spreading south as of 8 AM. KSCO & KPIG report helicopters in the air, a few evacuations, high winds, and heavy smoke in the air.
§Pic of smoke plume from Summit Fire.
 img_2436.jpg A pic of the plume taken approx 2pm from Rte. 152.
Wow! Comments (Hide Comments)
Thursday May 22nd, 2008 11:21 AM
I have a cam up - you can see a view of the smoke from Gilroy
Thursday May 22nd, 2008 12:07 PM
As of 12:00 p.m., Closed roads:
Eureka Canyon Road Corralitos Road Varni Road Browns Valley Road Amesti Road Pioneer Road Conditions are extremely windy and clear and the fire has moved fast.
Thursday May 22nd, 2008 1:53 PM
That's a nice camera feed. You can see how windy it is with the tree, and the smoke billowing. Is that aimed towards the west, so the smoke moving leftwards is going towards the south? I can't quite picture where you are.
Where I am, it was particularly windy yesterday. One question I had was what the microclimate was where the fire is. The redwoods- Santa Cruz side of the mountain tends to get 10 more inches of rain than western San Jose, and you can sort of see this in their chaparral plants. Places like Oakland have had S. Calif. style firestorms before, but this was always during autumn Santa Ana winds. This is a northeast dry wind which is lowering the humidity, but it is impressive to me that one of the areas which tends to be wettest is where the fire is spreading so quickly in May. It almost makes you wonder if a fire would be possible in a spot like Humboldt/S. Oregon.
Thursday May 22nd, 2008 2:23 PM
It's a very dry microclimate in the entire area where the fires are spreading. Native meadow-like, brush-covered lands and VERY dry. There are edges of this area that are surrounded by redwoods, but the majority of the area is very dry and tinder like. Terrible!
Also, from Aptos, as you look down South from Highway 1 just off the Freedom Exit, there is thick smoke that makes visibility very poor. No word yet as to containment. Two schools have been dismissed early (PVUSD) and several others are allowing parents to pick up early.
Thursday May 22nd, 2008 2:54 PM
This map is interesting to look at, if you zoom in on the Monterey area on the pdf, and can then compare with the higher risk San Diego areas. I guess the eastern slope of the mountains are supposed to have higher potential in general, but the area isn't particularly high risk during normal years.
http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/webdata/maps/statewide/fthreat_map.pdf
Thursday May 22nd, 2008 5:08 PM
May 22, 2008
To: UCSC Community Fr: Public Information Office Re: Fire Information In response to today's fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains, campus staff have added road and other information to the campus's Emergency Management web site (http://emergency.ucsc.edu). The site also contains links to local government information as well as local and regional media sites containing coverage of the fire. Please stay informed by visiting that site. Thank you.
Thursday May 22nd, 2008 6:08 PM
To protect students from poor air quality, Pajaro Valley Unified School District will close all schools and district offices.
For more information, see http://www.pvusd.net
Friday May 23rd, 2008 4:43 PM
Last night, from moon rocks in Bonny Doon, you could see the orange glow of the fire illuminated in the smoke. As gusts fanned the fire, you could see actual flames leaping hundreds of feet into the air from almost 20 miles away.
Sorry I don't have a photo to share.
Monday May 26th, 2008 11:46 PM
wouldn't look so pretty if it was your house in Felton, that was burning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvOH4o54n_M
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