Where there's smoke, there's fire.

In the fall, native and veteran Californians warned me that, although Bay Area winters may not be as cold as I'm used to, and although I would never see snow or ice in San Jose, I should prepare for frequent and unpleasant winter rains.  We had a few intense rain storms -- you may remember that we spent one of those in Sonoma -- but overall, it didn't seem that rainy.  Turns out it was a dry and mild winter, and now Northern California is paying the price.  East Bay communities, facing a dwindling water supply, started water rationing over a month ago.  And everything is so dry that fire has become a serious threat in many parts of the state.  According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, there are currently fires burning in Amador, Butte, Santa Cruz, Tehama, and Monterey Counties.  Fires in Sonoma, Tuolumne, Sacramento, Madera, El Dorado, and Kern Counties have been contained within the last week.

Last night, as my train headed south from San Francisco, I noticed that what had been a sunny day was turning dark earlier than normal.  It appeared that we were driving toward a very dense, very large storm cloud.  This may not seem strange to those of you in other parts of the country.  In fact, it looked a lot like one of those summer thunderstorms that can blacken the sky in a matter of minutes, particularly common in upstate New York.  However, it does not rain in California after March or so.  Certainly not in June.  Not ever.  I had read online about some new fires in Santa Cruz county, south of San Jose, but I didn't think they could produce that amount of smoke.  The effect was creepy -- the picture above, taken from our patio at about 8:00 PM last night, gives you an idea, but it doesn't really do it justice.

According to the San Jose Mercury-News, the cloud was smoke from the fire in the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County, about 90 miles south of here.  This is the largest fire burning now, covering 23,575 acres -- approximately the size of Worcester, Massachusetts.

I don't think we'll ever be in any danger here, near downtown San Jose -- there's hardly enough vegetation to sustain that kind of fire.  But it's sobering to step outside and smell the fire, or see a sky of smoke.