This is among the most appalling satellite images of a wildfire that I've ever seen

An image acquired by NASA's Terra satellite shows thick, brownish smoke billowing across a large area of the Southern California coast between Ventura and Santa Barbara on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2017. Please click on the image to enlarge it. (Source: NASA Worldview) I've seen my share of satellite images of wildfires. And whether it has been the size, the intensity, or the massive spread of billowing smoke, quite a few have horrified me. So when I saw the view above of the Thomas Fire blazing between Ventura and Santa Barbara, it wasn't as if I had never encountered anything like it. Even so, when I first saw the thick smoke obscuring about a 50-mile swath of the coast and pouring out far over the Pacific, I gasped out loud. I'm not saying that to be overly dramatic. It's just true. Perhaps I reacted in that way because I've spent quite ...