I don’t live in Los Angeles County – in fact I don’t even live in California – but it’s hard not to get a little bit interested in their seasonal wildfires. They seem to be very frequent and create significant media buzz. These fires scorch hundreds of thousands of acres of forest land in Califormia each year.

"The Station" fire in Los Angeles County. Photo by NASA.

During my morning perusal of RSS feeds in Bloglines, this really interesting link came up. It’s a page on NASA’s website in their FIRE AND SMOKE section that shows a satellite photo illustrating the enormity of the current wildfire. This image of what they are calling “The Station” fire was captured on August 31. The smoke plumes from the blaze are absolutely enormous and look like they extend into Nevada. The fire has burned more than 105,000 acres so far and has been burning since August 26.

I spent a few minutes looking at other images in the gallery and realized that Los Angeles County appears to be struck with these fires pretty frequently. The second image that I’ve included here was captured on October 13, 2008. The fire appears to be extremely close to where the current fire is. And although this fire only scorched 12,000 acres, it destroyed dozens of homes more than the current fire has so far.

Southern California wildfire October 13, 2008. Photo by NASA.

If you search for California wildfires on Flickr, you will find many first-hand photos of the fires from ground level. Fascinating but also a disturbing motivator to not own real estate in Southern California.

The NASA website is fantastic and provides excellent satellite imagery of current events on our planet. Until I came across a link to these photos I hadn’t spent any time on their site and was unaware how rich a resource of geographic information they offer. Check it out!