Ring of Fire

Every once in awhile, I'll wake up in the morning, unsuccessfully try to brush my crackling hair and notice it's a bit hotter and smoggier than usual, even for Los Angeles. It takes me a few hours to realize that the Santa Ana winds are blowing in, bringing hot, dry air and the perfect conditions for wildfires.

That was yesterday. Today it's impossible not to notice the evidence of wildfires. The sunlight streaming through open windows has an orange tint to it, and every breath of air tastes like smoke and ash.



The newspapers say Los Angeles is surrounded by a "ring of fire," but that's a bit of an exaggeration (as poetic as it is). There's a fire out near Santa Barbara, two hours to the northwest of LA. In the Los Angeles metropolitan area itself there's a fire to the northwest in San Fernando Valley and a fire to the southeast in Chino Hills.

As always, people and homes in urban areas are fine (myself included), but those in less dense neighborhoods running up into the mountains are being hit hard.