Fire season

Southern California is burning, again. In California that isn't really a surprise. We've got something here that's called "fire season." That means there's a time of the year when the brush on the ground is so dry that it will burn easily and when winds blowing from a certain direction will quickly turn a small fire into a huge blaze. These winds are called the Santa Ana winds.

This year, it is particularly bad though, at least so says the TV news. More than a dozen uncontained wildfires raged Monday across Southern California, threatening thousands of structures and forcing people to flee homes from San Diego in the south to Malibu (north of LA) to Lake Arrowhead (east of LA).

This photo taken from space Monday afternoon shows smoke rising

from the wildfires in Southern California. (Source: CNN.com)

According to CNN about 250,000 people have been forced to leave their homes because the fire is getting too close for them to be safe. The Qualcomm stadium in San Diego is being used as a shelter.

Every year these fires make the news and every year I get worried messages from relatives back in Holland asking me if I am ok. Yes, I am fine. These fires are all the way in Southern California. It would take me about 8 hours to drive to where the flames are, that's beyond Paris from Amsterdam.

A few years ago I was in San Diego when a major fire was raging nearby. The people I stayed with almost had to evacuate their home. I had driven down and got out of the San Diego area with a thick layer of ash on my car. Their house was ultimately not in any real danger.

Good luck to anyone who is in the danger zone and the fire fighters battling the blazes. My thoughts go out to those folks who did loose their homes.