Sunshine with a bit of cloud cover this Monday morning on California’s north coast, allowing a clear, bright-light every so often, a change from the recent gloomy, overcast of the last few days.
The NWS did warn about fire hazards in the area, retrieving the old adage: ‘Avoid throwing out cigarette butts out the window while driving…‘ One too-many ‘out‘ for emphasis.

Today is of course the Fourth of July as fireworks and drought come together — Dave Easton, acting Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest deputy forest fire management officer, in a holiday note of sense: ‘“Setting off fireworks in the forest is not only illegal, it is also a hazardous activity that can lead to injury and wildfires.”‘

Throw your own butt out the window first…

(Illustration found here).

As if in a true butt of reality, NASA has constructed a new map which shows the drought-horror on the Sierra Nevada’s conifer forests, and the blistering problem with the upcoming fire season.
Via ABC News yesterday

David Schimel, a senior research scientist who worked on the study, told ABC News that the map represented NASA’s “first close look” at the extent of the damage caused by drought on Sierra trees.
Schimel referred to the findings as “millions of trees dying at once.”
…
Schimel said the death of the trees was caused by a number of factors, related to climate change.
“These are trees that have been stressed by heat and a lack of water for a number years,” he said.
“Some of them died of a lack of water and others died from insects and plants. Trees would normally be resistant to such threats but the drought weakens them.”
He also said that the map points to what could represent a permanent change in the landscape of the region.
“The drought has some momentum, there could be a wave of mortality that continues for the next several years,” he said.
“The biggest concern here is that the trees that are dying are decades old or even centuries old, and this mortality rate means that the Sierras will be changed during our lifetimes and our kids’ lifetimes.”

In the potent words of the late Ray Arnold: ‘“Hold on to your butts.”‘