Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Hills Are Burning

My home city is Los Angeles, CA and I am not at all happy about the fire that is going on in the Angeles National Forest. As I post this, 21,000 acres have burned and thousands of homes are threatened. I could rant about the wisdom (or lack of it) in building homes on the hillsides, but I won't. I could rant about the lack of a controlled burn program in the Angeles National Forest (ANF), but I won't.

Mt. Wilson is a mountain in the ANF at an elevation of 5,700 ft. From the top, you can see most of the Los Angeles metropolitan area to the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. The Mt. Wilson Observatory has a 150 ft. solar tower with a TowerCam. The link is here. The fire is getting very close to Mt. Wilson, so I'm not sure how much longer this TowerCam will be operational. It is kind of interesting to look at.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks as though they may save Mt. Wilson. Considering its role in the history of science, that's awfully good.

A Science Lover

Shadow said...

Welcome Science Lover!

The firefighters are working hard to save it. Based on the Los Angeles Times, it seems that officials are more concerned about the transmission towers than they are about the observatory. TV, radio, and cell phone signals are more important to them than science, or so it seems.

Anonymous said...

We NEED to get a good old fashion Indian Rain Dance going here! I know we are in a drought. But it is possible if we get enough people focusing through Prayer, an Indian Rain Dance, or whatever means...Yes, I believe it is possible we can have rain here in Calif that will put out these fires!

From,
Sore Lungs among the Smoke and Ashes

Shadow said...

Hi Sore Lungs...

I have great empathy for what you are going through. I never thought I would say this, but I am so very glad that I am not there right now. We are having lots of rain here. I wish there was a way to send it to Southern California.