Oh man, it's December in California and the Red Flag fire warnings are up. *sigh*

@agterrane You mean there are big fires again in California? In December? Is that an usual season to have those big fires at?

@trinsec Right now, it's just a warning to be careful because fires can occur (Very dry bushland, high winds). If everyone is careful, no fire. Yes, it was unusual, but now because of climate change, it's normal. Fire season used to be from about April to October. Now it's year-round.

@agterrane Oh darn. I guess we should be very happy with our outright awfully wet (and miserable) winters here in the Netherlands, huh?

@trinsec Well, the upside is it's fairly sunny year round. I'm in Northern California, and it's a little wetter here. We used to have cold, foggy, rainy winters here but....We cleaned the air (dirty air has particles to make fog) and climate change (the storms don't come to us, so drought).

@agterrane Northern California is still fairly Northern Africa levels, heh. Kinda crazy to think of that, but there you go. ;)

@trinsec I school, we were always taught that California has a Mediterranean climate. Lots of Italians moved here back in the day and they started the whole wine-making thing (they knew a good thing when they saw it).

@agterrane
Well yes, if it's sunny year-round, it's great for wine making!

Funny detail I've read somewhere: Norway is starting to be a competitor to France's wine making business because during summers Norway got a lot more sunlight (earth tilting and all that) and climate change makes Norway a nice temperature for those grapevines nowadays. ;)

And Norway's height is like mid to northern Canada. :P

@trinsec Wow, hadn't heard that. I bet they'll be making a nice dry wine, and France will be stuck with the sweet wines. (In Cal, the coastal areas stay cool in the summer, makes dry wine; the central area stays hot, so makes sweet wine.)

@agterrane
I'll take your word for it because I don't drink any wine at all. Or any alcohol for that matter, lol. So I have zero knowledge on those things. I just know weird bits of trivia. ;)

I do love grapes, however!

@trinsec I used to dry dry wines, and loved it. Now, no. You'd love our valley grapes-- very plump and very sweet.