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OT: Firestorm in Sonoma and Napa

LafayetteBear

LafayetteBear

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Dec 1, 2009
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Don't know if you guys have seen this yet, but the North Bay is engulfed in fire right now. Santa Ana conditions, a regular event out here in the month of October, have the humidity at 14% and wind gusts of 40-50 MPH in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys.

A fire started somewhere up there at about midnight last night (reason currently unknown). The strong winds picked up burning embers and deposited them in a variety of locations. By 4:00 A.M., fires big and small had developed all over the place. Two hospitals in Santa Rosa were evacuated. The spa at the Silverado Resort (where they just finished a PGA tournament), was burned to the ground. So were a number of homes surrounding the two Silverado golf courses. William Hill Winery was burned to the ground. Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, too.

Calistoga, at the north end of the Napa Valley, is now on fire as well. They are bringing in fire trucks from every part of the State.

What a year for natural disasters!
 
North California is beautiful country - but October is also firestorm season. Oakland Hills 1991 was an unbelievable event. Cedar Fire 2003 was further south but also in October.

I know you're further south - but still stay safe! Winds are blowing in the SFBA too, of course.
 
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I live in Southern Marin , 45 miles south. The sky was smoke filled, but are now clearing. There are at least 3 major fires, If it was human set , it wasn't through carelessness.

May have been a result of a Napa junk yard fire in which the burning embers were spread through the air to the other locations
 
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Grass said:
I can smell the smoke down here near San Bruno/Millbrae.
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Wow, that speaks to the phenomenon of the Santa Anas. They are onshore winds (i.e., blowing from inland towards the ocean), which is the reverse of the normal wind direction in this area.
 
Traveled to Sonoma during our honeymoon. Sad to hear this! Great part of the country!
 
LafayetteBear said:
Don't know if you guys have seen this yet, but the North Bay is engulfed in fire right now. Santa Ana conditions, a regular event out here in the month of October, have the humidity at 14% and wind gusts of 40-50 MPH in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys.

A fire started somewhere up there at about midnight last night (reason currently unknown). The strong winds picked up burning embers and deposited them in a variety of locations. By 4:00 A.M., fires big and small had developed all over the place. Two hospitals in Santa Rosa were evacuated. The spa at the Silverado Resort (where they just finished a PGA tournament), was burned to the ground. So were a number of homes surrounding the two Silverado golf courses. William Hill Winery was burned to the ground. Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, too.

Calistoga, at the north end of the Napa Valley, is now on fire as well. They are bringing in fire trucks from every part of the State.

What a year for natural disasters!
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My forward-thinking, opportunistic boss just sent me out to stock up on our favorite Cabernet Sauvignon. I think we now have enough for the next 5 years. She said whatever we don't drink we can sell for 2x-3x what she paid. I just follow orders :)

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/...d-hotels-force-wine-country-wide-evacuations/
 
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Calistoga is home to my favorite Napa winery...Dutch Henry. Exquisite wines. Hope they make it through unscathed.
 
Can smell it down in San Jose as well.
I just saw a picture of Signarello Winerey, burnt to the ground
 
My computer doctor lives up in that area, just shot him an e-mail, hopefully he's ok.

Lived in Marin for several years growing up, also played golf up at Silverado.

Hope these fires get under control before any more damage is done.
 
Lafayette Bear or other West Coasters,

I've heard 2017 is a bad year for the grape harvest even before these fires, primarily due to an earlier heat wave. Is that accurate?
 
Roy: I don't know, but I have several friends who work in the wine business. I will ask them and get back to you. Since the crush (i.e., the grape harvest) is over, the fires would not affect the 2017 crop, except to the extent it destroys grape juice or fermentation facilities. I have no idea how much vineyard acreage is getting burned. Hopefully, not too much. The vines on the valley floor is probably safe. The vines on the hillsides, adjacent to brush, is likely at high risk.
 
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Living in El Dorado Hills, CA we are getting smoke from the Napa/Sonoma and Grass Valley fires. It' crazy.
 
We've been regular visitors to both Napa and Sonoma for years. I read that the Vintners Inn and John Ash restaurant in Santa Rosa were destroyed but that appears to be false from later accounts. Sure hope so. It's still in the evacuation zone. Also hope the fire doesn't move too far west or many great Pinot Noir wineries are at risk.

Worried that the Stag's Leap district is taking a direct hit from the Atlas fire. So many great wineries.
 
Didn't the fires a decade or so ago make for some really interesting (in a good way) wine the following season?
 
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Love the SLD. This is very sad. Signorello is (was?) great. Chimney Rock, Sinskey, etc. all are great. I hope the people and the rest of the wineries are OK.
 
LafayetteBear said:
Wow, that speaks to the phenomenon of the Santa Anas. They are onshore winds (i.e., blowing from inland towards the ocean), which is the reverse of the normal wind direction in this area.
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From my unused PSU Meteorology degree; Actually, they are down slope (katabatic) winds that typically blow off shore in southern CA. As the downsloping winds are funneled through mountain passes the speeds are intensified. The humidity is low because the winds are bringing air down from higher elevations to warmer air that becomes further dried out in the process (lowered humidity). Sometimes they will increase in velocity in the evening as the combine with the normal evening land breeze.
 
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KCLion said:
From my unused PSU Meteorology degree; Actually, they are down slope (katabatic) winds that typically blow off shore in southern CA. As the downsloping winds are funneled through mountain passes the speeds are intensified. The humidity is low because the winds are bringing air down from higher elevations to warmer air that becomes further dried out in the process (lowered humidity). Sometimes they will increase in velocity in the evening as the combine with the normal evening land breeze.
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Duly impressed.
 
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I was covering the Safeway Open and staying at Silverado when we got the frantic call at about 10:30 to evacuate. Staff was saying that we had about 10-15 minutes to get out of there. Fortunately, I had everything packed and ready to go so I could just grab and run to the car to bolt out of there. There was ash flying all over the place, the winds were gusting in the 50s, and I saw the beginnings of a fire in one of the parking lots across the street from the driving range, just down the street from the William Hill Winery. Once I got back to Florida, I started checking out the damage reports and saw about the Spa as well as the condos on the east side of the resort. After seeing some of the fires on the golf course itself, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the room I was staying in just off the range also burned. There's never a good time for something like this to happen but it's fortunate that it didn't happen 24 hours earlier because there were 6,000 people at Silverado for a Goo Goo Dolls concert and it would have been just letting out when the first fire calls were made just before 10:00. I feel really bad for those who had no chance to save anything because of the speed of the fire. I imagine a lot of those great-looking homes on the hills above the golf course as well as off the 5th hole of the North course aren't standing anymore.
 
CDLionFL said:
I was covering the Safeway Open and staying at Silverado when we got the frantic call at about 10:30 to evacuate. Staff was saying that we had about 10-15 minutes to get out of there. Fortunately, I had everything packed and ready to go so I could just grab and run to the car to bolt out of there. There was ash flying all over the place, the winds were gusting in the 50s, and I saw the beginnings of a fire in one of the parking lots across the street from the driving range, just down the street from the William Hill Winery. Once I got back to Florida, I started checking out the damage reports and saw about the Spa as well as the condos on the east side of the resort. After seeing some of the fires on the golf course itself, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the room I was staying in just off the range also burned. There's never a good time for something like this to happen but it's fortunate that it didn't happen 24 hours earlier because there were 6,000 people at Silverado for a Goo Goo Dolls concert and it would have been just letting out when the first fire calls were made just before 10:00. I feel really bad for those who had no chance to save anything because of the speed of the fire. I imagine a lot of those great-looking homes on the hills above the golf course as well as off the 5th hole of the North course aren't standing anymore.
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Saw the fire pix on golfchannel.com. I heard the list of performers a the nightly concerts. Sounded like it could be a fun event to attend. Is it typically, close housing and traffic, a good combination to keep the stress down and enjoy the event?
 
CDLionFL said:
I imagine a lot of those great-looking homes on the hills above the golf course as well as off the 5th hole of the North course aren't standing anymore.
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Glad you got out quickly, CD.

My wife has a co-worker ("Becky") whose mom and stepdad owned one of those houses. (Just across Atlas Peak Blvd. from Silverado.) They had just finished remodeling it. It was burned to the ground. Becky is heading up there today to sift through the ruins, since her mom and stepdad are over in Europe. Can't imagine they are gonna enjoy THAT trip, knowing what they will be returning to when they come back. Really sad. My wife is heading up there with her to provide moral support.
 
I'm in Santa Rosa. Evac areas all around me, my property ok so far. Many friends have lost homes, vehicles, farms....luckily, all families still intact.
Donate if you can. Parts of my town look like a war zone.
 
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LafayetteBear said:
Glad you got out quickly, CD.

My wife has a co-worker ("Becky") whose mom and stepdad owned one of those houses. (Just across Atlas Peak Blvd. from Silverado.) They had just finished remodeling it. It was burned to the ground. Becky is heading up there today to sift through the ruins, since her mom and stepdad are over in Europe. Can't imagine they are gonna enjoy THAT trip, knowing what they will be returning to when they come back. Really sad. My wife is heading up there with her to provide moral support.
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If it is the group of houses behind the Silverado, that breaks my heart. That is a really nice area, and we often talked about retiring there (knowing full well that Cali is an awful state for retirement). Just a really nice community. Sorry for their loss.
 
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kijanalives said:
I'm in Santa Rosa. Evac areas all around me, my property ok so far. Many friends have lost homes, vehicles, farms....luckily, all families still intact.
Donate if you can. Parts of my town look like a war zone.
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Agreed. I have. It sounds absolutely horrible there. Nothing worse than seeing homes burning down. My daughter is on the other side of the mountain at the culinary institute of america. She has been there for one month and now can see forest fires in several directions. She is definitely a bit unsettled at the moment. Two of her classmates who live in Santa Rosa have lost their homes but luckily everyone is OK. As of a couple of hours ago, the school had not had power, cell phone coverage or internet service in several days. Basically fires around them in 3 directions nearby but they have not evacuated. Being in a narrow canyon with only one way out, in this era of over the top safe space crap, I would think the administrators would have moved everyone out. I urged my daughter to leave yesterday. Luckily, she and 3 roommates were able to find a ride and a place to stay south of the fires below Napa so she is OK for now.

A few minutes ago, she was able to reach one of her friends on campus and was told many kids were panicking. I told her if she and her friends could line up rides for their friends, I would pay for a few hotel rooms.
 
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katchthis said:
Saw the fire pix on golfchannel.com. I heard the list of performers a the nightly concerts. Sounded like it could be a fun event to attend. Is it typically, close housing and traffic, a good combination to keep the stress down and enjoy the event?
Click to expand...

The organizers got smart last year and started the concert series because typically, this event doesn't really attract the name golfers outside of Mickelson. They had 6,000 for Goo Goo Dolls on Saturday and about that number for Weezer on Friday and Gavin DeGraw on Thursday. You get the golf ticket and the concert comes with it. As a result, the crowds this year were a lot better than they were when I was there 2 years ago.
 
CDLionFL said:
The organizers got smart last year and started the concert series because typically, this event doesn't really attract the name golfers outside of Mickelson. They had 6,000 for Goo Goo Dolls on Saturday and about that number for Weezer on Friday and Gavin DeGraw on Thursday. You get the golf ticket and the concert comes with it. As a result, the crowds this year were a lot better than they were when I was there 2 years ago.
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Sounds like a great value. I imagine the extent of these fires are really going to make next year, winery tours etc. possibly mute. Sad .
 
interrobang said:
Didn't the fires a decade or so ago make for some really interesting (in a good way) wine the following season?
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Could be, but the smoke from the fires is definitely NOT a good thing for the wine. Many (most?) winemakers in the area with large vats of fermenting grapes sealed their fermentation tanks so that smoky ambient air could not get into the tanks. That is a temporary thing, but apparently necessary if they don't want to have to toss a bunch of grape juice.
 
These fires are really bad, and things are getting worse. The air quality down here in the central Bay Area is terrible today, worse than yesterday. Can't go outside; poor visibility, and smells like the inside of a chimney flue.

There is no wind to speak of, either here or in Wine Country (about 40 miles away), but these fires are (according to news reports) "zero percent contained," and the forecast for tonight is 30-40 MPH winds.
 
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