Beginning To Worry About Cousins Fred & Maribel

Here’s a map showing where Fred & Maribel live.

They have fires of some sort in all directions, and even though they aren’t pressing in on them yet, it’s conceivable. It looks like the North San Diego County fires have raced down the Escondido watershed, close to the coast at Solana Beach. They are evacuating everything up to Carlsbad, but there’s no assurance the fires will stop there.

Here's some possible reassurance:

The greatest hope came from weather reports predicting the most extreme Santa Ana winds -- peaking at 60 to 80 mph in recent days -- would largely disappear. By Thursday, temperatures were expected to drop as much as 15 degrees in some places, and the severely dry humidity, which also fueled the fires, should ease.

"The high-pressure system is going to move far enough to the east where it will turn off the Santa Ana spigot," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada-Flintridge. "Up to now, the firefighters have been trying to just stay in front of these fires, doing the best they can. But they'll really be able to fight back against these fires by this weekend."