If you’ve lived in California for a while, and as you watched the scenes of all that smoke from the wildfires in Canada darkening the skies and filling the air in New York City, you may have thought, hey we’ve seen that more than a few times here.
Living here in Southern California, or almost anywhere in the state, we all know what it can be like when large wildfires happen.
The sky turns the colors of brown and orange and the air is filled with ash and particles you don’t want to breathe.
Those in New York describe what they’ve experienced as an eerie orange haze. On one day this week, the city of eight million people was reported to have the worst air quality in the world and was still ranked as having the 15th worst air quality going into today.
What New York hasn’t experienced is what happens when not just the smoke from wildfires, but what it’s like when wildfires start and spread in the cities or communities where Californians live.
When flames are close and homes are damaged or destroyed and when people have to evacuate and flee from danger.
With the unusually cooler weather we have had so far this year in San Diego, we may not be thinking as much right now about wildfires, but we all know there will be wildfires in California this year. We have them every year.
So maybe what we’re seeing in New York three-thousand miles away from us will serve as reminder to all of us to be prepared for them.
INFO ON HOW TO BE READY FOR WILDFIRES.
(Photo Getty Images)
Photo: AFP via Getty Images