It's 1:30pm on October 26, 2003, and right now there are at least six fires burning in San Diego county, most of them to the north of where I live. Many homes have been destroyed and some people have died. The city is covered in smoke. Early this morning I took some photos of smoke in the distance and high in the air; since then it has blanketed us like the worst Los Angeles smog (when looking at these pictures, understand that I'm no more than two miles from the coast and our sky is normally a nice, clear blue).

LINK A view of the sun at about 9am this morning from our balcony.

LINK A view of the smoke from the fire on the hills to the east of downtown San Diego.

LINK More of the smoky hills.

LINK And more.

LINK A zoom on the smoky hills.

LINK From outside our apartment, looking down 9th Avenue toward downtown San Diego.

LINK From outside our apartment, looking up 9th Avenue toward the Hillcrest part of town.

LINK A view from my building's sundeck, looking north toward Hillcrest. The building on the left is the edge of our building.

LINK View from sundeck, facing northeast. The paved area is the end of the southbound 163 freeway.

LINK View from sundeck, facing east. The area with the trees is an "island" separating the 163 southbound from the 163/5 northbound (visible in the background).

LINK View from sundeck, looking southeast toward the sun.