The Mt Wilson cam is starting to look more and more smokey
http://www.mtwilson.edu/fire.php

It looks like NASA-JPL was closed to all except mission-critical employees on Monday, Aug. 31...
Mt Wilson has the 100 inch telescope well enclosed but the stairway to it is made of wood ... Fingers crossed!

RoverDriver lives in La Crescenta - hope you're okay, Paolo!

According to MODIS, the fires had been climbing up on both the east sides and north sides of the mountain. But thankfully, in the latest MODIS update, it looks like the fire has gone quiescent. Barring flare ups - maybe Mt. Wilson has ducked a bullet?

Side notes: I'm also in Pasadena; most everyone in La Crescenta, La Canada/Flintridge, Altadena, etc, are only affected by this in the lungs. The air is awful lately. (Seriously....air with TEETH. Reminds me of China!) Only a few houses on the south side of the mountains have been burnt. It's mostly houses on the north side of the mountains, and cabins in the mountains, that have been burnt. Good luck to everyone!

Also, it's very hard to tell what's going on at the summit of Mt. Wilson, exactly, right now - visibility is very poor and the few people still up there are very busy. We know via the LA Times that there is a fire squad up there right now, lighting backfires. Go get 'em guys!

EDIT: Looks like I counted my chickens too soon!

Hope that Paolo doesn't mind me saying this, but I've heard from him & he's okay.

Seen elsewhere on the interweb, but I thought may be of interest here.
The recent Station Fire behind JPL - beautiful and really scary at the same time.
Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

I hope that Mt Wilson will be OK.
We lost Mt Stromlo in Canberra back in 2003 and I still feel sick in the stomach everytime I go up there.
Lots of rebuilding since then but the history that was lost was just devastating.
Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

Although the TV news showed aerial images with smoke very close to the 100 inch dome, good news prevailed;
http://palomarskies.blogspot.com/

Cough, cough, cough...

The Station Fire is still burning, but AFAIK noone in MER (or JPL) had any damage or injury. Maybe you have already seen this time-lapse video of JPL shot last Fri/Sat http://vimeo.com/6325431. JPL is the complex of white buildings in the lower right. In this video my house is outside the frame to the left. The fire got quite close to JPL. I left late on Friday and the view was quite impressive. The lab was closed on Monday except for essential personnel.

The fire got to within 100' of my property line where I have tall trees. I left my house when I saw that the hill in front of my house was on fire. There are lots of tall trees around my house and was sure I would have lost it in the fire. I packed quickly, took my pictures, documents, my backup hard drive, my kids drawings but had forgotten to take my record collection that I have since high school. On Sunday morning I was allowed to walk up the hill in Briggs Terrace to fetch more things. I left my record collection but took my signed copies of Squires and Jim Bell's books. Priorities!

As a side note, I had left my mail and web server at home on during the fire and periodically was pinging the server to see if my house was still there. Needless to say my server responded every time.

I was able to return home on Tuesday evening and I was amazed to see that in spite of the fire getting close, nothing got damages or burned. Everything was covered in ash and soot, the air quite unbreathable, but I was amazed at what the firefighters were able to do. Things are getting back to normal. Got the house and back yard cleaned up. I still need to repair the pool pump and clean up the pool (forgot to turn off the pool pump). My kids were happy: watching cartoons on TV, playing on their laptops, and school was closed!

Sharon, rover driver Frank and TAP/SIE Linda were quite close as well, and had to evacuate as well. Scott lives in Pasadena, far enough not to be evacuated.

Paolo

Added a picture I took last Friday 8/28 at around noon.

Agreed, the precision and professionalism of the firefighters who protect property during California's wildfires is awe-inspiring every year.

Scary how close it got to you Paolo -- I'm happy that all ended well! It's good to hear from you after a long hiatus in posting to UMSF.

--Emily

Perhaps slightly less awe-inspiring in 2003 when every house in my neighborhood in suburban San Diego was burned to the ground, and CDF refused to allow the Navy to drop on it.

I'm certainly glad the outcome in Pasadena was better.

It was a close call. Glad to hear from you and that everything is ok.

The closest I got to a situation like that was on the beginning of July when a fire started on a large field right behind my back yard almost at midnight; it was a local holiday at the neighborhood and the fire started due to some fireworks. It expanded very quickly but fortunately the wind was not going in our direction but to the left and the firefighters came in less then 10min. The fire got to about 100m of my fence.
If the wind would have been in our direction I would certainly had to wake up the kids and left them with our neighbors at the other side of the street.

Dear Paolo,

I had a stop over at LAX at 5 am last thursday and couldn't see any fire from the plane. Strange.
Regarding cleaning the pool, you may want to free Spirit first so you'll have plenty of "cleaner" available at work.
Glad I can write some humour now that the situation has improved.

The smoke blanket was extremely thick, Climber; in fact, it was so thick that it often looked like a large cumulus (nearly cumulo-nimbus, in fact) cloud formation from the LAX area & southward.

Paolo--great news!!! Welcome back, brother, and great to hear that all the other MER gurus @ JPL are also in good shape!

Indeed good news... LA Times wrote;
http://joy.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/Slides/Rutten.pdf
Thanks to these guys;
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-fire3-20...0,2110651.story

Have you thought about shoveling some of that up and trying it in the testbed?

In case anyone was wondering if I'm okay, as the raging floodwaters close in over Cumbria, after 3 days of non-stop rain, yes, I'm fine, thanks! Kendal where I live is relatively untouched - flooding in some low-lying areas, river horrendously swollen and lapping at its banks, but no major damage. Unlike where my mother lives, up in Cockermouth. There the town centre is under several feet of water, and RAF helicopters are airlifting people out of houses as boats go up and down the Main Street...

I was in Penrith all day, one of the speakers at a training day for local Council people, hoping to make them aware of the problems of light pollution. The plan was to end the day with a coach trip to Kewsick - but seeing as Keswick is now eligible to be twinned with Atlantis, that didn't happen.

Very difficult times up here in the Lake District. We've got off very lightly here in Kendal.

Stay dry mate.
The exact opposite here in Australia. Another big dust storm over the last few days and the the hottest November tempeatures on record! 35-40C+ for 13 days straight in some places.

... add to that the 'catastrophic bush fire alert' in 3 states today. There's a fire going about 50 kms from the Narrabri Australia Telescope but it's not under threat.

Some pics of Kendal tonight... http://www.flickr.com/photos/38065120@N04/...157622713631821

Things are looking pretty serious in parts of Cumbria - seems we may have a record breaking one day rainfall event - possibly approaching 300mm. With even more to come too.

My old hometown of Cockermouth in real trouble - river burst its banks earlier today, Main Street flooded, several rescue helicopters thwup-thwupping over the town, hoisting people to safety, and now power cuts as power substations in the town are overwhelmed with floodwater.

Oh, jeez, Stu, not good. Do you have any friends or relatives there? Hope that everything turns out as well as it can.

My mother and sister live in Cockermouth, and lots of my friends too. Thankfully they all live on higher ground - my mum and sis live up a hill - but the middle of town is now a disaster area, with water 8ft high, and the Main Street is literally a river of filthy brown water, with waves rolling down it, as firemen in dinghies pull people out of houses. There are reports of rescuers having to breakin to houses through their roofs to pull people out. Just unbelievable. My mum and sis have got a couple of friends staying with them - their house was hit mid-evening, with water halfway up their stairs, I gather. Awful, just awful.

Some video on Sky News' site here: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/F...200911315458572

According to the met office, some parts of Cumbria may have had 345mm of rain !!!!

God.

Glad that your mom & sister are okay, Stu. 345mm/24 hrs? That's incredible.

Hope you & yours are all OK Stu. It's looking pretty grim up there. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8369934.stm

Flooding's a lot more disruptive (and the effects last a lot longer) than it might appear to the casual TV news watcher. (In Gloucestershire we had our 500-year flood in 2007; I hear these are being described as a 1000-year event. I think someone's actuarial stats could do with revising...)

Hang in there Stu, hope everyone's safe.
Things will get better.

Thinking of you all up there - we southerners have had it pretty easy this time round.

Stu ... wishing you, your family, and friends, safe passage through all this.

Craig

Poking through the metsat images, I think the energies might be remnants of extratropical strom Ida. From Honduras to the Carolinas and to Ireland and the UK, this was one long swath of destructive flooding.

My wishes and hopes to those affected.

Feel very humble - my garage was 6" deep in water when I got home from work - my lawnmower may never work again, but my home is safe - can't imagine losing the bottom floor of my house to the floods. Thinking of all those people on airbeds tonight...

I do not get personal on a usual basis. But this forum is very special to me, even if all I only contribute is a WOW for what you folks do. This forum is part of my family, because you all love what I love...

My daughter Rachel caught the H1N1. The virus progressed to strep pneumonia and then ARDS. On Wednesday November 25 she went on a ventilator. Without that she would have died. She has twin sons. The apples of my eye. This pernicious disease brought her to this state in a blink of time.

Watch your twenty year olds! This disease has such a weird demographic.

Craig

OM.. Craig, that's terrible news!
As a member of your extended 'family', my thoughts are with you and your daughter at this time.
Keep your chin-up, and 'faith' in your heart.

Likewise, Craig...my God, that's just terrible. Sure hope she's getting much better.

Thank You, Astro0 and nprev, my freinds.... You all really are my extended family.

Rachel has always been a fighter. Now is no different.

But please watch your friends and family and do not take this disease lightly. When it does hit, it hits like Thor's Hammer.

Craig

Craig, I hope the very best for your daughter's speedy recovery.

This virus strikes amazingly quickly. There have been reports of oseltamivir (Tamiflu)-resistant strains in North Carolina.

If anyone out there in UMSF-land is in a high risk group, H1N1 vaccinations are now becoming widely available.

You can locate flu vaccine locations (both H1N1 and seasonal) by typing in your location in the box on this website:
http://www.flu.gov/

Good info, Mike...thanks ...Do not takes this disease lightly!
Not much of a risk for old guys like me... but.. watch the ones you love.
I am off to bed now... but the purpose of mentioning my daughters dilemna was to shout beware.
Best to all of you....
Craig

I'll keep your daughter in my thoughts. I'll pray for a speedy recovery.

Very sorry to hear that Craig, an awful time to you. I hope she recovers well, and soon.

Oh ****!
Our children and us have been fortunate for the time being but we also had news of some not-so-fortunate people in the area. My thoughts with you for a quick recovery.

all limbs crossed for a speedy recovery

Craig,
Our thoughts are with your daughter.
One of our daughters is in that 'weird demographic' you spoke of; she is in her first-year of college in Boston.
all our best to your family...

Craig, that's extremely cruddy. I'm sorry.

I made essentially the same comments that will follow below on some off-the-cuff comment elsewhere that the H1N1 thing is being manufactured by the media because they want a story. In reality, it's anything but. It's for real. It really is much worse than the seasonal flu in having very negative effects on a larger number of people.

My wife is an ER resident, and she was working in the pediatric ICU during September. The number of otherwise healthy children ending up in the ICU on a ventilator was quite a shock to her. Sure, for every child on a ventilator, there are 100 who "just" got the flu... but those (off-the-cuff) odds are pretty chilling! Is that terrifying? Of course it is! It's not just a media thing. Pretty much all of the H1N1 cases were recovering, but even so there's the real scary actual situation of hospital units being filled with H1N1 sufferers.

Get vaccinated if you have the chance! Don't let cynical people who's only anecdote is "no one I know has been sick" convince you this thing's not serious.

The demographic is certainly weird. We're pretty sure the whole household had H1N1 this summer. I (recently post-maternity), the 3-year-old, and the 2-month-old were all recovered in a few days of fever and aches. The healthiest person in our household, the 35-year-old, very physically fit, very health-conscious husband was down with a high fever for five days. It didn't make sense.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your daughter, Craig.

My 15 year old stepson had it, no real problems.
I once had the regular flu and literally could not get out of bed for about 18 hours.

Get well soon.

I had something pretty bad about a month ago. Had to stay home from work for two days. I went to the local Minute Clinic, and they tested me for H1N1 and it was negative, so I "just" had some random virus that kicked my butt.

Thanks everyone.

Does not hurt to take this serious and get vaccinated.

Very scary and heart breaking to see my child like this. But she is a strong young woman. She'll beat this.

Craig

Last I heard, the test for H1N1 wasn't particularly reliable. Tamiflu's given either way in many cases.

Just want to let everyone know my daughter is responding positively to treatments. Long and painfull process. She is a fighter.
Family is moving along day by day.

Craig

Good news, though sorry to hear that she still has some struggles ahead. Thanks for the update, Craig; I was wondering how she was.