Wildfires

I woke up yesterday to the Santa Ana winds, which blow into the area during the fall and winter months. It was pretty cool at first -- and great for doing laundry, because with the warm wind, my clothes dried on the clothesline in no time.

That's about where the good part ends. At around 1 PM yesterday, I started smelling smoke. I just thought it was the neighbors burning something -- which happens fairly often -- but then it didn't go away. By 3 PM, the skies were yellow, visibility dropped drastically, ash was raining from the skies, and it started looking like the apocalypse outside.

As it turns out, there are wildfires in California, spanning from San Diego all the way up north of LA. The Santa Anas are making the fires worse, and blowing all the smoke down here. You can't really go outside without your eyes stinging from the ash, everything smells like smoke, and there's ash everywhere.

It's better today, at least here. Yesterday you couldn't see any blue in the sky, and it was lousy outside -- today at least you can venture out for a little while, although I'm staying inside as much as possible. I'd rather not have smoke in my lungs. But it's pretty bad north of the border. I took this panorama today by taking a series of pictures and stitching them together -- the shot is looking northeast from my apartment.

It's pretty crazy, but the winds are supposed to die down tomorrow, at least a little bit. There aren't too many fires south of the border, it's concentrated mostly in California, so hopefully they'll get it under control. For now, though, the winds are howling, the smoke is blowing, and Tijuana is looking like a bit of an ashtray.