Weather in Southern California or Los Angeles on fire!
Many people believe that Southern California is one of the best places to live. Well, maybe so, but if you love frequent fires, then it’s for the best.
Due to its hot and dry climate, fires in Southern California are a common phenomenon. Sometimes only the winter season is free of them, but not always. With the arrival of the new spring, its season begins anew. Until another late autumn.
Where I live, in Hollywood, arguably the most famous part of Los Angeles, I’ve already witnessed two fires this year and it’s not even mid-May! Both in the Hollywood Hills featuring the famous Hollywood sign. The first of them broke out a few weeks ago, allegedly started by some teenagers. It devastated the northern part of the hills overlooking Burbank, where the NBC studios, famous for The Tonight Show, are located.
The most recent fire broke out yesterday in the eastern part of the foothills, near the Griffith Observatory, another famous Hollywood landmark. Famous largely to locals as the Hollywood sign dwarfs all other landmarks.
Both fires were relatively easy to manage and were contained within several hours. I happened to see a big smog cloud from the first fire, but the other one was just a TV event for me. However, it looked really spectacular, as you can see in the image posted on my site. Fortunately, the observatory survived unscathed.
However, some fires can last for many days. When this happens and the fire site is close to the city, you see a lot of smog in the air. The last time this happened, in late fall 2003, sunspots could be seen with the naked eye. No protection was really necessary.
Due to thick fiery smog, the Sun’s face was reddish for most of the day, its shorter wavelengths extinguished by dust in the atmosphere. This usually happens only during sunsets and sunrises when the Sun is close to the horizon, but then it was possible even with the Sun still very high. I could easily see a large sunspot and some smaller ones on its surface. It was around 4 PM as I approached the local Hollywood Library along Selma Street, looking west.