Here are a few photos.
I woke up Monday morning only when my wife phoned to ask if I was ok. I had thought it was before sunrise because it was still dark in the house. The first photo shows why, the sun is barely burning through the heavy smoke overhead. The level of light was like an eclipse, dark enough that I needed the lights on indoors.
Later in the day cold ashes and weightless charcoal were still drifting down. Note the slight difference between filtered sunlight and shadow in these and the next photos.
Visibility steadily got worse as the smoke layer came down from overhead to ground level. The whole time I was very conscious that I was only a few miles downwind from the huge devastating fire that had taken out blocks, whole subdivisions, at Santa Rosa's northern fringe. Live cinders could reach the ranch if the fire and wind return to Monday morning's intensity.
Tuesday was murky (last two photos) then finally late in the day the usual ocean breeze came out of the southwest and cleared the air, a little.
After departing that region I crossed several plumes of smoke from other fires on the way home. One near Fairfield was nearly dense enough to slow traffic on I-80.
I hope I can wrap up the issues that brought me home and get back over to the ranch quickly. Relatives near there are housing several families of fire refugees and I could help, but I want some control over the situation if strangers are going to be there indefinitely.