It Is the Purple Season
California, the golden state, has weird seasons.
There is the green season, when all the mountains in the Bay Area turn green. The rain in the winter rejuvenated especially the open East Bay mountains.
There is the yellow season, when said mountains now are all a rusty yellow.
It happens almost overnight. One day you are driving home looking Eastward and admiring the grass in all shades of green. The next day, the mountains turned yellow and dry looking. The yellow season also means rattlesnakes and plenty of sunscreen. The yellow season lasts most of the year.
Towards September, we typically enter the orange and sometimes purple season. Orange for the apocalyptic skies, when the smoke of the forest fires across the state block the sunlight and bring doom to the Bay Area.
Purple for the hazardous air quality index score. This is the season when the AQI will hit above 100 by noon. This is the season when you live indoors, mostly cooking in our own sweat until we can cool of the house in the evening.
Purple Air right now in Silicon Valley and the SF Bay Area. If you have a forced air heater, it's a good time to run just the filter to clean up your inside air. Makes a huge difference. https://t.co/vXmBK5vG1d pic.twitter.com/2GvyXcCgeO
— MaryPopeHandy (@MaryPopeHandy) August 27, 2021
The last few days we entered the purple season, as winds shifted and sent the smoke from the Dixie and Caldor fires down South towards the Bay Area. Today, the AQI was 160 in San Jose. We’ve seen in much worse. Yet above 100 also means, no cycling, no running and no sitting outside on the patio.
Time to rake the forests.