Brentwood Press - Index

Brentwood Press - OakleyPress_07.25.08 - Index

18A | THEPRESS.NET COMMUNITY JULY 25, 2008
A whiff
of things
to come
I reached the second stair from the top in
the Press Building and wheeled on my heel for a
ritual gaze through the plate glass at Mt. Diablo
paling in the light of dawn. No need to consult
the morning weather report to get a fi x on air
quality. On a clear day, the shadow of Perkins
TAKE IT
OUTSIDE
GER
ERICKSON
Canyon is as sharp as the wizened
gully on a prospector’s
cheek.
But when I looked, what I
found was that the mountain
was not to be found. Occupying
the 10 miles of space between
downtown Brentwood
and Mt. Diablo was a miasma
of grey, residue of the charred
landscape of Northern California.
The Summer of Smoke
had begun.
Our wildfi re season was well underway by
mid-June, bringing to a climax the driest twomonth
stretch in the state’s history on the heels
of two years of subnormal rainfall. The smolder
got bolder when dry lightning raked Northern
California the weekend of June 20, igniting more
see Outside page 19A
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Photos by Ger Erickson
No, Mt. Diablo hasn’t been plowed under by developers. Recent wildfi res kicked up a layer of haze that
transformed the view from Round Valley in the crystalline air of April 6, above, into something decidedly
less picturesque on June 28, below.
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