Still lots of fires around California, along with a high pressure area sitting over the state. The result is winds from the north driving all that smoke into the valley. Air quality is pretty bad; the morning sun is really orange from all the smoke. And temps in the 100’s don’t make things any better.

Over 1700 fires in the state, but down to 330 active fires. Here’s a good map of most of the fires in the state: http://www.oes.ca.gov/WebPage/oeswebsite.nsf/InteractiveMap?readForm . Another map here http://www.fire.ca.gov/downloads/incidents/StatewideFireMap_070708_PM.pdf .

So it’s inside for me. Although I don’t have any allergies, I have noticed a bit of throat irritation from the smoke.

We drove back from Utah on Sunday. There is still a lot of smoke in the mountains, up to the 6000 foot level. You can’t see across Donner Lake from the freeway, normally a really pretty view of the lake and surrounding mountains. Visibility at the 4000 foot level was about 5 miles. At the Sacramento valley floor level, Sunday visibility in the evening was about 10 miles.

And it doesn’t appear there will be any relief soon. Temps are projected at 100-108 degrees (F) through the weekend. Because of the smoke layer, the overnight temps aren’t getting below about 75. We normally open the windows at night to get a bit of breeze and to save on AC costs. Not this week. We set the thermostat at 83 degrees at night, and keep the bedroom ceiling fan going.

This next month’s electric bill will be quite impressive.