It's all over the news; fires seem to be burning everywhere in Southern California and the air is heavy with smoke. Yesterday you could see it, smell it, and even taste it. Today, the Santa Ana winds which have been fanning the flames seem to be dying down, or at least they seemed to be doing so this morning.

Below is a screenshot showing some of the data which is being published. The MODIS hot spots (red and yellow dots) are from the Forest Service. The background image is also from the MODIS site, and you can see the smoke trails blowing across southern California and out across the Pacific Ocean. The active fire perimeters (orange polygons) and active fire points (green triangles) are from the GeoMAC site.

The image below shows one of the fires closest to Redlands, up in the local mountains near the town of Lake Arrowhead. The red polygon is the burned area, and the yellow outlines show the fire perimeter at various times. The note links to a local TV station broadcasting live and recorded video of the fires there. The fires have spread and are now burning around the town of Running Springs.

The Canyon Fire was one of the first to hit the news. Shown below is the fire perimeter along with a note that links to online photos.

We also found a KMZ created by the California Office of Emergency Services, and here it is shown on top of the topographic map layer from the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center.