Valley fire: “Lake County is looking like a ghost community”
Photographer Kent Porter's email to his colleagues at the Press Democrat on the collaborative efforts of covering the Valley fire in Lake County.
“It’s November, Right?”
Three words "It's November, right?" Have been thrown around quite a bit by some firefighter friends of mine, people on the street, one lady in Safeway and a guy pumping gas in a faded Jeep Wagoneer, Friday afternoon. It feels more like winter in Florida here (even though it's not [...]
Red Flag Warning
Rain schmain. Everyone knows that when the calendar tips in to fall around here, fire season enters a critical frame. Even with last weeks rain, a little bit of wind, heat and a few days of sun negates the effect of the moisture. So as the offshore flow ramps up, [...]
Nocturnal lightning
I've been watching the weather (well I always do that) for almost a week now. By reading forecasts, studying weather models and in general watching the sky a little more closely. First the heat wave that was not really a barn burner -not in Santa Rosa anyway- which then left [...]
Red Flag Warning
Yeah, the calendar says April, but looks a lot like June around here. It's not rocket science to look at the surrounding vegetation to understand that we haven't had much rainfall this calendar year. Thus, north winds coupled with low humidity and high temperatures has prompted the National Weather Service [...]
Fire Light
It's a given. Our job as news photographers is to cover news both good and bad. It's what we do; what we are good at. I would stink at selling real estate, building furniture (the wood bowl I made in high school wood shop didn't look anything like a bowl) [...]
Red Flag Warning
Ready for this? The moisture laden remnants of an Eastern Pacific tropical system is being funneled north and will interact with a low pressure trough off the West Coast. According to a National Weather Service advisory, some of the storms will include dry lightning strikes which elevates the fire danger [...]
North Pass Fire
Beside Little League Baseball, I've been shooting other assignments, including an all-day trek to Covelo to cover the North Pass fire in the Mendocino National Forest. I would've liked to have stayed longer, but my tank was running on empty due to 10 days of work. The fire, which was [...]
Brush Fire
Just south of Sebastopol, Volkerts Road was a little smoky on Wednesday as a brush fire came close to several homes in the area. Firefighters and homeowners combined to stop the fire before it reached any structures. -Kent Porter
Fire Weather Watch
As has been the case most of the 2012 spring, the wind is back with warm temperatures and low relative humidity. After last weeks wind event, everything is pretty much dried out. Coupled with the warm temperatures and winds for this weekend the National Weather Service has issued a fire [...]
