Tinder!

A tinderbox waiting to happen: view from a friend's house overlooking Lake Sonoma in California

Air quality in many parts of California is slowly improving. Smoke and haze linger from wildfires throughout the state after lightening ingnited at least 1,781 separate blazes (at its peak) on June 21st. Brush and forest fires have blackened more than 800,000 acres statewide, unprecidented in California's recorded history. A major blaze in Northern California is going on within ten miles of the above location. Although this photograph was taken in early spring, one can get an idea of how a fire gone unabated can easily get out of control.

Sunlight through clouds of smoke

Smoke covers the sky over inland valleys and even in between the coastal ridges, threatening small towns such as Big Sur, a scenic and popular destination within the redwoods and arid chaparral. Two years of drought, combined with disease-plagued trees and scrub bushes have made for volatile conditions.

The Piute fire burns out of control in the mountains east of Bakersfield, California.

At least 64 structures have been reported destroyed. The fire has been hot enough to melt beer bottles, jars and windows into puddles of glass. Some relief from the inferno has come recently from rainfall and fog along the coast. Around 20,000 firefighters from 41 states and Puerto Rico have been fighting more than 320 active fires around the state, and more on the way from Mexico, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Click here for more pictures.

Natural disasters are catastrophic, especially on this scale. California seems to have more than its fair share of them. Yet, return...we must.