Back in the day, when Kennedy was President and San Jose State was a college, I lived in a dorm on the east side of campus, with a good view of Mt Hamilton and the Lick Observatory.
Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton. A view from downtown San Jose.
As you can see, the surrounding area is typical California Oak Woodlands, with broad fields of dry grassland and clusters of oak groves, home to those California Elves that haven’t taken up residence in the malls. Very dry in summer. Very flammable.
It’s a new Century now, and both Kennedy and the dorm are gone, and San Jose State is a university. And now we have wildfires across California, some of which are threatening the South Bay. Here’s a map from ESRI.
SJSC is right at the dot marking downtown San Jose, and Mt Hamilton is just inside the burn, directly east
Thursday night the fire burned right up to the domes, but heroic efforts by the firefighters saved them and the telescopes. Lots of infrastructure was lost, however.
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- The fire
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- The aftermath
I’m just glad that something is left from my college days.
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