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There was a conspicuous abundance of fires all over the valley, many of which were creating towering black plumes of smoke visible for many miles. Really nasty black plumes in some cases. A couple of the fires looked like a refinery or something way off over the horizon.

For those unfamiliar with the somewhat disturbed rhythms of Sacramento Valley agriculture, whenever an orchard loses productivity, they often just cut down the trees, bulldoze the whole thing into a mountainous pile, wait for the right stretch of dry weather (but not too dry!) followed by some nice light breeze and uplift to get most of the smoke aloft, and light er’ up. I would assume that accelerants are usually involved. There’s an unusual amount of orchard retirement tied up in the drought (younger trees take less water and stressed older trees are less productive) and we just had a dry month

onlooker wrote:I guess a Plan was never really developed for this scenario even though scientists have been saying it is not a question of if but when.

diemos wrote:

onlooker wrote:I guess a Plan was never really developed for this scenario even though scientists have been saying it is not a question of if but when.

Of course there's a plan. Here it is:

"Ride it out and then pick up the pieces afterwards."

Okay ... I never said it was a GOOD plan.

There is a large surface high pressure located over the west coast. The air is almost stagnant. Smog, which is rich in CO and pollution from fires, which is rich in CO, have built up over the west coast and western Canada.

diemos wrote:

onlooker wrote:I guess a Plan was never really developed for this scenario even though scientists have been saying it is not a question of if but when.

Of course there's a plan. Here it is:

"Ride it out and then pick up the pieces afterwards."

Okay ... I never said it was a GOOD plan.

Agriculture burns are regulated by local fire departments here in Calif. In order to do a burn you need first sign up and pay for a burn permit, have your brush pile inspected by the local fire dept. and then wait for a burn day. Everybody starts their fires at the same time because there are only some days when the fire dept. allows burns to be started. I don't know about the central valley but here in S.B. County where I live last week was the first approved burn day allowed in the last several months.
I think they( local fire dept.) wait for enough rain and moisture to deter chances of controlled burns
starting wildfires. I don't really know if other counties also allowed agriculture burns last week or if somehow multiple fire districts all allowed fires on the same day but it is a possibility.

JV153 wrote:I can't find any report from a credible site - this seems to be a hoax - none of the major news sources are reporting it, nor do I find anything on it elsewhere, e.g US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).