[OT from cottage renovations]
it's like the place wants a little dusting. the Zaca Fire is somewhere past 150,000 acres burned so there are layers of ash all over the place. I wouldn't be surprised for it to be noticeable in future stratigraphy.
(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)
it's on the roses ...
... and the lilies ...
... in the webs of this agave ...
... and everything else.
[OT from cottage renovations]
the interaction of air and moisture coming off the Pacific and running into the Coast Range often makes for interesting atmospheric effects. clouds and fog are always changing and I never tire of seeing what the sky and hills are up to lately.
during fire season the smoke plumes are subject to the same effects though the result is often subtly different.
(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)
perspective can be misleading and it's easy to lose a sense of scale: the fire is actually burning two ridgelines away from this roadside vantage point.
the smoke convection column is taking on the form of a cumulus cloud, its summit tens of thousands of feet up in the air.
the tail of the plume is hundreds of miles away, shifting with the changes in wind currents at its altitude.
framed by a California live oak the top of the cloud is boiling up through the air much more quickly than this static image can convey.
this fire, though massive, is burning in a wilderness area and there really isn't much that can be done about it. the country is rough and inaccessible so it's hard to get crews into there. presumably perimeters can be established around anything in its path but for the most part it's going to have to burn itself out. it started five or six weeks ago in early July; it will be a couple of months at least until rain can be expected in this region.
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[edit: for details see the wildfire interagency information system's Zaca wildland fire web page]
