Matt Charnock, Author at Underscore_SF

The Weekend Catch-Up: NorCal’s Mosquito Fire Grows (and Grows and Grows)

12Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

The Weekend Catch-Up: NorCal’s Mosquito Fire Grows (and Grows and Grows)

Since starting Tuesday, September 6th, the Mosquito Fire in Placer County has ballooned to epic proportions. Not only did it double its size overnight Friday, but it continued to grow and smoke and cause evacuations at an alarming pace throughout the weekend. By Sunday morning, the fire, which was recorded Friday at around 14,000 acres, had grown to over 41,000 acres in size — quickly and irrefutably becoming CA's largest blaze this wildfire season. Skies continued to orange in nearby counties; the “volcano-like plumes” went on fluffing the atmosphere; people hastily gathered their entire lives and fled to an ever-growing list of evacuation centers. As of Monday morning, the Mosquito Fire has now swallowed 46,587 acres of drought-stricken forests and urban land. Containment is cu...

On the Two-Year Anniversary of SF’s Orange Skies, Things Aren’t Much Better

9Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Editors' Picks, Essays

On the Two-Year Anniversary of SF’s Orange Skies, Things Aren’t Much Better

Let’s focus more on small moments of joy. I woke up late. I was frazzled, making sense of the mental detritus churning around my head. The unwritten notes concealed in the folds of my prefrontal cortex I needed to find, organize and ring out for an on-air audience. The time was 10 a.m., and there was construction going on in the adjacent art studio that I was working and living and cooking out of. The sound was deafening; a symphony of nail guns and hand saws being used in tandem amid floor tiles shattering into thousands of sharp pieces. Thankfully, my Mission District studio was sandwiched between three other floors of unoccupied space, so I gathered my laptop, and AirPods Pro and hurried up the dilapidated stairs onto the roof. Ash filmed everything. The smell of vaporized synthe...

These Pictures of the Mosquito Fire’s ‘Volcano-Like Plumes’ Are Dystopian

9Sep

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Nature + Climate Crisis

These Pictures of the Mosquito Fire’s ‘Volcano-Like Plumes’ Are Dystopian

They’re yet another sign that NorCal’s landscape is being forever changed by the climate crisis. Earlier this very week, I nodded at my optimism around 2022’s wildfire season in California. The two prior years each saw accumulated totals of burned land that measured in the millions of acres. As for this year? CAL FIRE had reported at the time just over 202,684 acres across the state were charred due to wildfires — the overwhelming majority of them started by human activity. That sanguinity was expressed not even seven days ago. Since then, an additional 77,000 acres have been scorned across the Golden State. Among the current blazes, Mosquito Fire burning in El Dorado and Placer counties — an area that includes the Tahoe National Forest — has grown at an alarming, dizzying, worrisom...

San Francisco Is (Probably) Getting More Monkeypox Vaccines Ahead of Folsom Weekend

9Sep

By Matt Charnock2 Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

San Francisco Is (Probably) Getting More Monkeypox Vaccines Ahead of Folsom Weekend

California will receive 10,000 monkeypox shots from the federal stockpile soon. All in all, it seems like the worst of SF’s monkeypox outbreak is behind us. Since August 9th, the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) has seen a downward trend in MPX — the newly adopted name for “monkeypox” by health organizations to help bypass stigma and prejudice around the zoonotic disease — due to increased vaccine availability and public awareness around the disease. San Francisco also now allows second-dose vaccine appointments for anyone 28 days past their initial vaccination or those with compromised immune systems. (Anecdotally, the hours-long wait times at Zuckerberg SF General's vaccine clinic that became Twitter fodder are long gone. About three weeks ago, my first MPX dose ...

Karl The Fog’s Six Stages of an SF Heat Wave Are Very Accurate

7Sep

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories

Karl The Fog’s Six Stages of an SF Heat Wave Are Very Accurate

San Francisco's foremost marine layer sees, hears, and understands us. We’re fully aware that we’ve devolved into a heat wave venting publication this week. (It’s also been good for SEO, so best believe at not even a week old, we’re taking full advantage of that fact.) Things are finally starting to cool off around this slice of NorCal — we’re typing this exact sentence with the outside temperature sitting at a cool 64 degrees in SF — but it’ll still be hotter than usual for the remainder of the week. Tomorrow’s high in San Francisco will just barely crest over 80 degrees, though other parts of the Bay Area are expected to again see 90-plus degree highs. And while we’re all yanking ourselves up from prior descents into madness over the long weekend re: the heat, Karl The Fog, being...

The Bay Area Got So Hot Yesterday a BART Train Track Actually Warped

7Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories

The Bay Area Got So Hot Yesterday a BART Train Track Actually Warped

There was no train service between the Pleasant Hill and Concord stations for a good amount of time yesterday. Temperatures continue to soar and break records and leave us all contemplating the best means to cool off. Thousands of PG&E account holders, too, are still contending with occasional power outages as the California grid operator deals with huge spikes in energy pressure. But what wasn’t likely on your heat wave bingo card was BART suffering service delays — because the track, itself, literally bent under Tuesday's sweltering heat. According to the rapid transit agency, the railroad trail between the Pleasant Hill and Concord stations warped slightly amid the day’s 110-degree heat. “Out of an abundance of caution,” BART suspended service between the two so that crews co...

SF’s Sunsets Have Been *Chef’s Kiss* Amid This Heat Wave

7Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories

SF’s Sunsets Have Been Chef’s Kiss Amid This Heat Wave

I'll never get tired of watching the sun dip below the Golden Gate Bridge. I was born in Texas; I was raised in Texas; I lost my virginity in Texas. I'm used to the heat — temperatures that climbed so high that black leather interiors and seat belts doubled as branding instruments. Moving to San Francisco was an exercise both escaping the insufferable heat and pursuing a career in journalism. Though the latter has proven objectively successful — I now own a digital publication, albeit one very much in its infancy — the former remains increasingly elusive. Since 1970, San Francisco has warmed by 2.9 degrees; a 1.7 degrees increase in San Jose is now a reality; California, as a whole, warmed 2.9 degrees on average, as well. Heat spells like the one we're currently wrapped in righ...

FYI: SF’s Neighborhood Pools Are Free and Open Today and Tomorrow

6Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories

FYI: SF’s Neighborhood Pools Are Free and Open Today and Tomorrow

We love to see it. San Francisco's article-worthy tepid summer temperatures have gone out the window. The past few days have seen the City by The Bay — a metropolis usually graced with cool weather, courtesy of Karl The Fog and its coastal microclimates — stricken with 90-degree plus temperatures. In an effort to help locals cool down, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department announced on social media today that the neighborhood pools it manages will be open and free to the public today and tomorrow. "Our neighborhood pools will be free and open for families to cool off in the afternoons today, September 6, and tomorrow, September 7," the City department tweeted Tuesday, September 6th. Of the nine neighborhood pools in San Francisco, eight of them will be open at some p...

The (Long) Weekend Catch Up: 100s Across the Board

6Sep

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Hyperlocal News + Stories

The (Long) Weekend Catch Up: 100s Across the Board

A bad three-day weekend for choosing milk as a beverage. This holiday weekend saw the beginning of the atmospheric heat dome that is still swallowing the San Francisco Bay Area. On Monday, 11 record-high temperatures were shattered. Livermore saw the mercury skyrocket to 116 degrees Fahrenheit — which was, at the time, the hottest temperature registered in the SF Bay Area. Ever. Like… ever. Observed 100-plus-degree temperatures were far from rare on Labor Day, too; well over a dozen cities in the SF Bay Area saw its residents sweating through their t-shirts living through such conditions. While we thought yesterday was hot, weather predictions are projecting that today, September 6th, will be *the hottest day recorded in history* for the region. And Livermore might ver...

5 Ways to Keep Chill-As-Fuck During This Bay Area Heat Wave

5Sep

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Nature + Climate Crisis, News to Know

5 Ways to Keep Chill-As-Fuck During This Bay Area Heat Wave

We don’t need to suffer any more than we have to — especially in this economy. Is it hot? Yes. Why? It’s the heat. And if recent weather projections are to be taken seriously, it appears this Bay Area heat wave, which exists as part of the larger heat dome that’s bowled California, will linger longer than expected. Bay Area locals can now expect to sweat through record-high temperatures until at least the middle of the week. The Bay Area chapter of the National Weather Service extended its Excessive Warning and Heat Advisory today until at least Thursday, September 8th. Worse? We may not hit the hottest of temperatures until tomorrow. So… the thick film of sweat currently glossing our eyebrows is expected to only get dewier (in a bad way). However, that’s not to say we can’t ...