Being born and raised in Claremont there were many extreme weather days that are still easy to remember. There was the time while in class at El Roble we started to hear screaming from all around the school. We open the door only to find it was snowing. Not just a little, but enough to accumulate about an inch or so. It was excited and we all ran around like we never had seen snow before. Each year it would always seem to get hot in September, reaching extreme highs for us up to 105 degrees. Fires were always an issue to the north, but not nearly the extent we have now. But seeing our state literally burning, air pollution worse than in decades, and we literally have no place to go. These photos are part of a series showing the impact how fires have impacted our air. Although there definitely is less orange glow from this weekend, smog is still thick and one fire could change it all again. There were times in the 1970s where I could not see the mountains north because of smog. Thta had all been eliminated…until now. Here’s a comparison of Miramar Avenue looking west. COURIER photo/Peter Weinberger