Better quality satellite photo of smoke drifting 500 miles (dialup warning 330 kb)

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The small version:



The large version (identical, just twice the size):

[yurbud]

1. GREAT photos. The fires look like red felt pen marks

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3. The red marks were added by someone at NASA

earthobservatory.nasa.gov is where I got that picture. All the names I added myself. Someone at NASA put the red dots on it.

[Buck Turgidson]

7. Thanks for the images.

Adding the names for the fires and cities really helps. But the smoke trails are fascinating.

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10. You can get updated ones at

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

[whistle]

2. My God, it is not just San Diego area the fires stretch right up into LA

...and even to the north of LA

[aquart]

4. That's why San Diego is so short of men and equipment.

Trucks coming in from out of state stopped first at the earlier, more northern fires. They never got to go further south.

[harlinchi]

5. Why does the smoke stop at the Mexican border?

Is anyone asking whether the type of development in the area is a factor in the level of fires seen? It cannot be possible for the terrain or climate to undergo that significant of a change over that short a distance. I see brown coloring further south. Maybe it's a sandstorm or something. I see very little smoke.

Reasons? Developmental differences between Mexico and the US? Arson in the US?

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11. Here is another satellite photo which shows what the Mexican side of the border is like

Scroll to the bottom of the picture below to see what the border area looks like from space. Heavy development with almost no open space right up to the base of the mountain, then the same wide open space as on the U.S. side, then heavy development around Tecate. The climate is the same as San Diego. I don't know how far the fire spread into Mexico. The map I got from sdcountyemergency.com only went as far as the border.

[harlinchi]

12. Thanks. I looked at the larger image above and saw t he lack of smoke...

...immediately south of the border; it was striking to me. There must be a reason, valid or not.

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13. It could be that they haven't been practicing the same fire suppression for 100 years that

the U.S. has, so their fuel volume hasn't built up to the same levels that are in the U.S. They probably have much smaller fires because there is not as much accumulated fuel.

[C_U_L8R]

6. hey look, you can see satan in the smoke

oh wait, no, it's just Bush ...with horns

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. The Harris fires...40 miles east of San Deigo...how convient for Blackwater....just saying

takes care of all the protesters and community blocking of their proposed compound there

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9. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it turned out that someone associated with Blackwater

"accidentally" tipped over a barbecue on Sunday morning. I wouldn't put it past those people.