FIRE!

There is a huge fire (20,000 acres this morning) about 45 minutes away from us, near Beaumont and another one up in Whitewater Canyon.   YES, the canyon with the Whitewater Preserve.  The Beaumont fire was heading up toward Oak Glen and all of the apple orchards and farms, but the winds have now pushed that one east, toward Pioneertown.   The Whitewater fire is heading UP the mountain, away from the preserve...sigh...Arson is suspected as the cause of these fires since there have been NO thunderheads.   We haven't had much of a monsoon season so far this summer and August doesn't look like we'll have any storms, so we have been without rain for some time now.

We are keeping an eye on both fires.   Yesterday driving back down Highway 74 from Idyllwild we could see that the entire Coachella Valley was FULL of smoke!   Ugh!   It is drifting east over our valley and we are FULL of smoke.   People are being advised to stay indoors.   Well, with a temperature of 118 degrees here today, we will do so!

Will post updates as they become available.

Here are some links for you:

Los Angeles Times:     https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-02/apple-fire-in-riverside-county-grows-to-20-000-acres-winds-expected-to-pick-up-this-afternoon

CNN:      https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/03/us/california-apple-fire-monday/index.html

This one has a map of the fire area:     https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/02/map-apple-fire-perimeter-and-evacuation-near-banning/