Carson City has been downwind of the Rim Fire outside Yosemite since it began ten days ago. We’ve been shrouded in an eerie, choking cloud of smoke since then and it’s made everything in our fair city look a bit apocalyptic.

Through the smoke, the sun gives off only a faint red glow and is dim enough to look at without sunglasses (but don’t do that).

NASA has recently released a few images that really bring out the magnitude of the fire and its associated smoke plume. First is a shot taken from the International Space Station by Astronaut Karen Nyberg. Carson City is the red circle.

Another interesting image is from the Suomi NPP satellite. Carson City is the blob of light at the tip of the red arrow.

Both my wife and two-year-old son are sick with bronchitis, so we left for the clean skies of Sacramento this weekend. It was a bit difficult to come back to the smoke yesterday. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. This is the first natural catastrophe that has had a real impact on my life, and it has been a bit eye-watering (pun certainly intended).

Hopefully the fire gets under control before too much more damage occurs, but wildfires can be a necessary part of many forest ecosystems. I just hope this one resulted from natural causes.