California: golden sky on golden land

The place where I live is on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. Many people know San Francisco with the red Golden Gate Bridge that arrives here in the summer, if you are not prepared you can be tossed by the cold winds when you step on the tourist bridge.

The climate in the San Francisco Bay Area is so temperate that it can be said that it is cold all year round because the temperature is below 20 degrees Celsius. A cold winter day is only 10 degrees and a hot summer reaches 27 or 28 degrees. normal.

In a year, this area has some very hot days, usually in October, when the temperature reaches 38.39 degrees C, or 100 degrees F.

Residents were concerned about the weather from the earthquake. Think about it because of the great earthquake with a magnitude of Richter 6.9 that occurred in October 1989 that many people remember, but there is no scientific evidence to show the connection between the high temperature of the day and the earthquake.

This year, the weather in the western United States was unusual. Terrible heat waves have occurred in California, Nevada and Arizona. And the city of Denver in Colorado, in the heart of the United States, on 9/9 snowed, two months earlier than usual.

Only California just suffered two heat waves, which are hot burns of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. One in late May and the second last week, where the thermometer in the city rose to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, 43 degrees Celsius. .

It’s hot, which causes the plants to dry out, so it’s easy to start fires. California wildfires are primarily caused by nature, such as lightning or strong winds that cause trees to rub together to catch fire.

If it is caused by humans, it is usually because the power lines running through the forest are not considered for maintenance to prevent leafy trees from growing around, and when the cable is cut or the electricity is touched, it will burn the trees. Sometimes the reason is also because of people carelessly turning on the oven while camping or throwing cigarette butts into hay.

In mid-August, on the morning of Sunday, August 16, there was a sudden storm that startled residents of the Bay Area. An unexpected meteorological event that meteorologists had not predicted. Around noon, some rains are very rare in August. It’s true that humans don’t always understand mother nature.

After a night of a thousand thunderstorms, wildfires broke out in California from San Diego in the south to Napa in the north.

The San Francisco Bay Area is surrounded by splashes of fire on all four sides. Most concerning for people is the fire in the southeastern mountains, which prompted San José city officials to notify residents, including several Vietnamese families, to prepare the necessary supplies and food for the order. Evacuation must leave the area immediately. Fortunately, the wind has diverted and is not blowing towards the residential area.

Another fire occurred along the pine forests of Half Moon Bay, about a 30-minute drive from San Francisco. Further south, fires around the Santa Cruz forest evacuate UCSC in the city.

There was a fire northeast of Vacaville, less than an hour from San Francisco, located on Highway 80 toward the capital, Sacramento. At one point, this arterial road had to be closed due to the overflow of the fire.

There is a Pho Tri Buddhist training center of the Vietnamese people whose fire spread to the front and the back of the pagoda. Fortunately, the temple was not damaged despite the destruction of many surrounding houses.

According to information released by the temple, the fire: “stopped at the feet of the Bodhisattva Chuan Chuan Bodhisattva and Jizō Bodhisattva in the courtyard. The main hall, the street, the monks and the statues of Arahant still remained. Still, the flowers and fruits continue to bloom beautifully in the temple. “

The 5-acre practice center, Pho Tri, was established in 2012 by Venerable Thich Tu Luc and regularly has retreat courses for Buddhists in the area, including many Westerners.

On Facebook on August 20 and 20, Mr. Tu Luc wrote about the fact that the fire stopped in front of the pagoda: “Yes or no, a miracle in the middle of life? Thanks to the Three Jewels miraculous! ” He was also the founder and abbot of the Pho Tu Temple in Hayward City, near San Jose, for more than three decades.

After the mid-August fire had just burned out, the San Francisco sky had only stood still for a few days, then on America’s business holiday weekend September 5-7, there was another wave of heat and the temperature rose. up to almost 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

This time, wildfires broke out, the largest in central California, the Fresno area where Yosemite National Park is located. Hundreds of thousands of acres of forest were burned by fire and hundreds of tourists were rescued and evacuated by helicopter.

Last week, California had wildfires in the north, on the border with the state of Oregon, which also erupted into massive fires.

With the wind blowing southward, smog covered the San Francisco Bay area, but this time it created a very strange orange-yellow sky. A phenomenon of refraction of light is rarely seen and has made many people feel that the end of time is near. A daytime reality.

Wednesday 9/9 in the morning. Upon awakening, I saw a dim light through the windowsill, and I thought it must be after 5 o’clock, when the sun was at dawn. Clock hand only at 9 o’clock I don’t think so. Turn on the television at 9 o’clock.

Looking up at the sky, looking out into the backyard was a strange yellow. The evening before I saw the red sun shining through the smoke, through the pines like many days ago. But this morning the sky was strange, yellow and gloomy. The lights in front of the house, those of the neighbors were on and during the day I had to turn on the lights. In the afternoon, I had to go to the post office, but the street lights, shop lights, and car lights were shining like 5pm on a winter day.

The San Francisco Bay Area skies for the past month each day are classified as unhealthy because of air pollution. More than 3 million acres of forest have been burned by it in recent months, compared to just a few hundred thousand acres last year.

The golden land of California has been famous for over a century, yesterday we saw the golden sky of California. That phenomenon stunned tens of millions of San Francisco Bay Area residents and was an indescribable sadness to gaze at the yellow sky all day.

* The author teaches at a community college and is a freelance journalist living in the San Francisco Bay Area.