Air quality looks and is pretty bad in Oakland. Any chances this first game gets cancelled?

Looks like AQI at the official Oakland site is 105. If I recall from the WSU game a few years ago, they will play if the AQI is below 200. Berkeley Marina is reporting 58, but that's on the water and not at the stadium.

So possible? Who can predict the weather 7 days out? The good smoke forecasts go out 2 days. But the Napa fires were a whole lot closer than Tahoe, so while it may even be smokey, I doubt it comes even close to 200 given that downtown Sacramento is in the 160s now and is significantly closer to the Tahoe fire.

Per weather.com, the winds will shift to be from the west starting tomorrow and will stay that way through Labor Day. That means the smoke will be blown inland and away from Berkeley, therefore there should be no issues (at least for this first game).

Thanks - super encouraging. After waiting effectively two years for cal football - a canceled game is the last thing I need!

golden sloth said:

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Per weather.com, the winds will shift to be from the west starting tomorrow and will stay that way through Labor Day. That means the smoke will be blown inland and away from Berkeley, therefore there should be no issues (at least for this first game).

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Winds from the west... Good for Bay Area AQ, bad for keeping the fire out of the Tahoe basin.

7:30PM kickoff, we'll be fine.

ColoradoBear said:

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golden sloth said:

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Per weather.com, the winds will shift to be from the west starting tomorrow and will stay that way through Labor Day. That means the smoke will be blown inland and away from Berkeley, therefore there should be no issues (at least for this first game).

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Winds from the west... Good for Bay Area AQ, bad for keeping the fire out of the Tahoe basin.

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Reminds me of a Dick Van Dyke line from one of my favorite musicals, Mary Poppins. The wind direction is wrong, but the rest of it sounds oddly appropriate to the beginning of another Cal football season:

"Wind from the east, mist comin' in, like something's brewin' about to begin. Can't put my finger on what lies in store. But I feel what's to happen all happened before."

Yeah, welcome to our world for the last *checks notes* 30+ days. Apologies in advance.

Figures that this stupid smoke would follow us wherever we go.

What depresses me about this situation is that it is projected to get worse in the future as extreme heat and drought intensify. I was in Xi'an, China a few years back and a local told me that he could remember being able to see stars in the sky at night as a child but the air quality had deteriorated so much that now it is never possible see stars at night. I can't help but worry that things are heading that way in the West with the worsening climate crisis and intensifying fire seasons. Cancelled football games will be the least of our worries.

GoCal80 said:

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What depresses me about this situation is that it is projected to get worse in the future as extreme heat and drought intensify. I was in Xi'an, China a few years back and a local told me that he could remember being able to see stars in the sky at night as a child but the air quality had deteriorated so much that now it is never possible see stars at night. I can't help but worry that things are heading that way in the West with the worsening climate crisis and intensifying fire seasons. Cancelled football games will be the least of our worries.

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What's left to burn?

Might affect Basketball season.

https://apnews.com/article/fires-environment-and-nature-california-18d949a81e52a85198e1089f711aae5c

Things are bad in the West but will be worse in the North, East, south and Midwest.

Worse winter storms, stronger hurricanes, drier summers in the Midwest, worse tornados, more adverse impact from sea level rise (yes sea level rise will effect the West Coast but the sea coast in the West is has in general a higher elevation than in the East and South).

GivemTheAxe said:

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Things are bad in the West but will be worse in the North, East, south and Midwest.

Worse winter storms, stronger hurricanes, drier summers in the Midwest, worse tornados, more adverse impact from sea level rise (yes sea level rise will effect the West Coast but the sea coast in the West is has in general a higher elevation than in the East and South).

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Don't forget west-coast drought and being long overdue for a major quake. We're pretty much all screwed, everywhere. Time to be excited about at least one more football season!

If you want to get depressed, check out this site:


https://projects.propublica.org/climate-migration/

GoCal80 said:

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If you want to get depressed, check out this site:
projects.propublica.org/climate-migration

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with endless misery ahead, darnit, these boomers give abundant thanks we never spawned

smh said:

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GoCal80 said:

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If you want to get depressed, check out this site:
projects.propublica.org/climate-migration

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with endless misery ahead, darnit, these boomers give abundant thanks we never spawned

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Maybe it is because I have the cutest grandson ever born, but I am darn happy I had kids and that my older daughter had her first last year. I have no doubt his generation will do a far better job of making the world a better place than mine

The Cal campus just introduced a web page for dealing with wildfire smoke on campus:

https://ehs.berkeley.edu/safety-subjects/wildfire-smoke

This includes information about disruption of athletic events and practices:

https://uhs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/aqi-based_decision_making_matrix_updtaed_10.30.19.pdf

71Bear said:

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smh said:

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GoCal80 said:

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If you want to get depressed, check out this site:
projects.propublica.org/climate-migration

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with endless misery ahead, darnit, these boomers give abundant thanks we never spawned

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Maybe it is because I have the cutest grandson ever born, but I am darn happy I had kids and that my older daughter had her first last year. I have no doubt his generation will do a far better job of making the world a better place than mine

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A huge mistake of your generation that lead to climate change was avoiding catastrophic total war, obscene medical advances, and pulling billions of people out of poverty.

You should be ashamed.

LunchTime said:

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71Bear said:

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smh said:

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GoCal80 said:

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If you want to get depressed, check out this site:
projects.propublica.org/climate-migration

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with endless misery ahead, darnit, these boomers give abundant thanks we never spawned

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Maybe it is because I have the cutest grandson ever born, but I am darn happy I had kids and that my older daughter had her first last year. I have no doubt his generation will do a far better job of making the world a better place than mine

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A huge mistake of your generation that lead to climate change was avoiding catastrophic total war, obscene medical advances, and pulling billions of people out of poverty.

You should be ashamed.

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My generation completely dropped the ball. The income divide in this country is a huge issue that the next generation will need to address or suffer the consequences. The decision to involve this country in a series of never ending wars have cost a terrible toll of life and treasure. The total reluctance to attempt to work together to solve the problems of this nation is a direct outgrowth of policies implemented by individuals in my generation and the complete abdication of responsibility to address climate change falls on my generation as well.

Yep. We screwed up big time.

I might add the past generations made horrible mistakes that have left Cal without a Rose Bowl since several generations ago.

But it really is bigger than that. As I have looked across the desolate playing field of Memorial Stadium two years ago, I kept thinking about how the world that even I and other Cal alums have gazed upon had once been this vibrant place full of native American grave sites, wild animals such as squirrels, cow dung and not so clean air. It had all changed since our forefathers and one foremother (Phoebe Hearst you can't hide, we know you are on the evil side) put down this awful campus, and it is only going to get worse and worse throughout our life. Look at the basketball team. The once proud basketball program that a bunch of dead white guys like Pete Newel built has been brought to its knees. The world we made is in absolute ruins:

https://www.livescience.com/cane-toads-cannibalism-evolution.html

We started the concept of physical war in the trenches, and made those wars endless - oh wait, that was the dudes across the Bay.

We shifted political thinking from collectivism to individualism by celebrating the accomplishments of star players who went off the NFL and fame.

We raised players as mini-adults with structured training patterns, and taught that hard work always equals fulfillment. But does it when the Portal is so full? What about the children?

Just how do boomers really deal with their own sort of class anxiety and instability? Hell, if we know. Clearly the future generations will get it right and figure it out. NIL, player salaries, and decision making will be distributed evenly among all players, in all sports and with all stakeholders. Everyone will be empowered. Even the guy who cleans the jock straps! And Cal on one fine day will go to the Rose Bowl to play in January.