Viewfinder: Smoke Blankets Southern California as Fires Continue to Burn

Author:: Pacific Standard Staff
Publish date:: Dec 11, 2017

A plume of smoke is seen from Ojai, California, as the Thomas Fire grows and advances toward seaside communities on December 10th, 2017, near Carpinteria, California. — A plume of smoke is seen from Ojai, California, as the Thomas Fire grows and advances toward seaside communities on December 10th, 2017, near Carpinteria, California.
(Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)

Viewfinder is Pacific Standard's daily photo feature, showcasing one image from the news.

A firefighter cuts brush at the Thomas Fire on December 7th, 2017, near Fillmore, California. Strong Santa Ana winds are pushing multiple wildfires across the region, expanding across tens of thousands of acres and destroying hundreds of homes and structures.

A firefighter cuts brush at the Thomas Fire on December 7th, 2017, near Fillmore, California.

Strong winds blow sand at a wind farm in the Coachella Valley on May 6th, 2019, in Palm Springs, California. California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment found that temperatures of the inland deserts of Southern California, including the Coachella Valley, are expected to continue climbing. According to the report, average daily highs could increase as much as 14 degrees this century if greenhouse gas emissions keep rising.

According to California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment, average daily highs in the state's inland deserts could increase as much as 14 degrees this century if greenhouse gas emissions keep rising.

An aircraft drops fire retardant over a brush fire in the Angeles National Forest near Mt. Wilson Observatory, northeast of Los Angeles, on October 17th, 2017.

An aircraft drops fire retardant over a brush fire in the Angeles National Forest on October 17th, 2017.

Inmate firefighters battle the Ferguson fire in Jerseydale, California, on July 22nd, 2018. A fire that claimed the life of one firefighter and injured two others near California's Yosemite National Park has almost doubled in size in three days, authorities said Friday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the so-called Ferguson fire had spread to an area of 22,892 acres, and was so far only 7 percent contained.

Inmate firefighters battle the Ferguson fire in Jerseydale, California, on July 22nd, 2018.

A fox walks through a cemetery at dusk on January 10th, 2018, in Bath, England. Although the number of foxes in the United Kingdom is actually on the decline, the number of urban foxes in England has quadrupled in the past 20 years with an estimated 150,000 foxes in England, or about one for every 300 urban residents, according to a recent study.

A fox walks through a cemetery at dusk on January 10th, 2018, in Bath, England.

Honduran caravan members look through the fence at the United States–Mexico border wall at Friendship Park in San Ysidro, California, on November 18th, 2018.

Honduran caravan members look through the fence at the United States–Mexico border wall at Friendship Park in San Ysidro, California, on November 18th, 2018.