Southern California Wildfire As Seen from Space

The Springs Fire near Los Angeles sent a plume of smoke out over the ocean on Friday, May 3, as captured here by NASA's Terra satellite. (Image: NASA) The Springs Fire in Southern California expanded to more than 10,000 acres today, threatening more than 4,000 homes. Driven by intense Santa Ana winds, the fire has produced a smoke plume that's visible from space, as seen in the image above from NASA's Terra satellite. A dense grid of streets and highways can be seen in Los Angeles to the right of the image. The fire began at about 7 a.m. on Thursday morning. Today it raged through the Santa Monica Mountains and jumped the Pacific Coast Highway, threatening a Naval installation at Point Mugu, according to the Los Angeles Times. Here's a false-color view of the same scene: