My daughter and her family are OK in San Diego county. My son in law said today that their skies are blue (and hot- 90+ degrees) while not many miles away visibility is just about nil. They can't see any smoke or flames so far. He said the Santa Ana is blowing in their neighborhood but it is just breezy instead of blowing hard as it does sometimes. (That Santa Ana is toxic to some people- I remember one year's visit when I thought I had come down with a cold- I had a sore throat and running nose. That was the first time I had experienced the phenomenon.)

One year- I think it was 1994- fires were burning all over in southern California. That year, living in a different house, we could see from the front yard smoke and the flames burning just over the ridge at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. A major part of the problem with controlling the fires, I think, is the gazillion canyons throughout southern California, which makes for turbulence and instability in the air's movement. It is so scary.