Visibility Concerns

 Here are a few thoughts on visibility...

 

1. The biggest threat to us is a fire started in the Canyon during a Diablo wind event blowing between North and East because these will give us minimal time to evacuate.  Such events are generally characterized by hot, dry air with good visibility so fog won’t be a problem.  Even if there are fires, the high winds and massive amounts of air moving around during Diablo winds should dilute the smoke considerably more than we’ve seen in the past few days.  
2. We are working to get some more cameras installed further down the Canyon, say around Riffle Range/El Cerrito.  This would lessen the issue of limited visibility.  That said, we won’t have a 2^nd camera in place this season. 

 

Ultimately, if the existing camera(s) is (are) limited by poor visibility during a N-E Diablo wind event, we’ll just have to make a judgement call as to whether the lack of an hour of sleep is worth it!

 

I’m starting to work on a protocol/guidance document for observers which should answer most questions like this. 

Cortis