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July 10, 2005
Detail of larger image (available zipped below):
The county of San Diego at the height of the October, 2003 wildfires that swept southern California
The international U.S.-Mexico border is shown at the bottom. The red outlines indicate areas that were burning at the time the photograph was taken. These fires raged on for about six days after this photo was taken. Approximately 400,000 acres burned - about one quarter of the surface of the county of San Diego. About 2,700 homes were destroyed and another 3,000 accessory structures (garages, barns, agricultural buildings, etc.) were lost. 4,000 vehicles were destroyed as well. Seventeen San Diegans lost their lives during the fires. Structural damage loss is estimated at well over $900,000,000.
When this picture was taken, there were three main fires burning. In the center of the image is the Cedar fire - the largest brushfire in California and most destructive in American history. At this time the fire was a huge crescent burning in the mountains just east of the city of San Diego and moving due west toward the city's suburbs, through the outlying communities of Julian, Crest, Harbison Canyon, Alpine, Ramona and Lakeside. In some cases (Crest and Harbison Canyon in particular), entire communities were destroyed. At times the flame front moved through the brush at speeds of up to forty miles per hour. The Cedar fire was started by a hunter who got lost in the mountains near Ramona. He set a small signal fire that, predictably considering the weather conditions, got out of control (now there's an understatement) late on October 25th, 2003. At the time, southern California was experiencing a seasonal climactic condition called a Santa Ana. This violent weather is caused by the development of a large and powerful high pressure area over the Great Basin area (the deserts of southern Nevada, Utah, Arizona and southeastern California). Typically strong Santa Ana winds were pushed west over the coastal mountain ranges, compressing and superheating already hot desert air as they squeezed over the mountains. Hot, dry winds were gusting up to 60 and 70 miles per hour over crisp, tinder-dry brush that had not experienced a drop of precipitation for over 180 days when the Cedar fire started. These were the worst possible conditions for lighting a signal fire. The Cedar fire burned for about one devastating week. By the time the last flames were sputtering out, the weather had changed - mercifully - and incredibly, snow was falling in parts of the county that had been experiencing over 100 degree heat at the onset of the conflagration. In fact the weather change is what stopped the fires; firefighters could do little but watch helplessly. The Paradise fire is shown burning to the north of the Cedar fire. It destroyed 224 homes and consumed about 57,000 acres of brush. The community of Valley Center and several Indian reservations were severely impacted by the Paradise fire. The Otay fire is only visible as a red outline in the southwestern portion of the county under the massive smoke plume of the Cedar fire. Several other minor brush fires can be seen peppering the county, often caused by sparks and burning embers carried for miles by the wind. The boundaries of the county of San Diego span from the Pacific ocean to the northern tip of the phallically shaped, blackish-green waters of the Salton Sea in the east (huge amounts of dust were being blown into the salty waters, shown here as green swirls), and south to the international border. The entire city of San Diego - over 2 million people - are completely obscured by the smoke plume from the fires in this picture. There are no water vapor clouds shown in this photograph. The eastern third of the county is scorching low desert moonscape east of the coastal range, almost completely devoid of brush (typically referred to as "fuel" by the locals). Scroll to the bottom of this page for a view if the county one month after the fires had subsided. Yet another Santa Ana was raging with fierce hot winds blowing almost straight due west raising a plume of ash and dust that choked the city on Thanksgiving day, 2003. 
The greater Los Angeles area at the height of the October, 2003 wildfires that swept southern California
Part of the reason that the fires in San Diego county were so destructive is because a large portion of county firefighters and fire fighting resources were in the San Bernadino mountains helping local firefighters combat the brush fires shown here when the Cedar fire broke out. Ultimately, over 750,000 acres burned during this period in southern California, almost 4,000 homes were destroyed and 24 people were killed, including one firefighter.
The island of Catalina is shown at the bottom of this picture. The residents of Avalon were being choked by smoke from the San Bernadino fires burning some 95 miles away to the northeast. 
The images shown above are details of the zipped full sized image available for download here. This photograph shows most of California, part of northern Baja California, Mexico and the sea of Cortez at the height of the October, 2003 wildfires. At the extreme north is the city of San Jose nestled between the divergent branches of the coastal mountain range at the bottom of San Francisco bay.
The San Andreas fault is clearly visible as the long "wrinkle" running from the north northwest to the south southeast right under San Jose straight down along the eastern slopes of the coastal range on down under the center smoke plume in the San Bernadino mountains east of the Los Angeles basin and beyond. The large green/gray speckled area in the northern half of the image and east of the coastal range is the agricultural San Joaquin valley - the bread basket of California. The eastern side of the San Joaquin valley is bounded by the Sierra Nevada mountain range; much higher than the low coastal range. The snowy caps of this mountain range are clearly visible. Note the two small brush fires occurring at about 6,000 foot elevation. The greater Los Angeles basin (the big gray blob) is shown braced by smoke plumes from fires in the San Bernadino mountains to the east and the wildfires in the Santa Barbara mountains to the north. The San Fernando valley - the home of "valley girls" - can be seen clearly just north of Los Angeles. The Mojave desert, a high elevation desert, is the large sandy colored area to the east. Most people, even Californians, don't realize that about three quarters of California is desert with islands of more temperate micro-climates mostly along the coast. The areas west of the coastal range are "air conditioned" by the Pacific ocean, and of course the mountain ranges poke up into the cooler atmosphere at altitude. The true desert areas typically experience the sort of extreme weather one would expect; average summer daytime temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit and night time temperatures that can plunge fifty degrees or more. As mentioned above, the San Diego county wildfires are visible in the center of this image. The international border between Mexico and the U.S. is superimposed. The border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana is the busiest in the world. 
This photograph illustrates the destruction in a more subtle, but equally impressive way. On Thanksgiving day 2003, another Santa Ana developed - a common occurrence in the autumn. This time the winds, blowing straight west, carried vast clouds of ash and dust left by the fires a month before directly over the northern part of the city of San Diego. The burn scars left by the three fires can clearly be seen; the Paradise fire in the northern part of the county, and the massive Cedar fire disfiguring the central part of the county, canvassing the areas from the top of the coastal range and stretching west over 70 miles into the city limits of San Diego. The smaller Otay burn scar can be seen in the southwestern portion immediately adjacent to the communities of National City and Chula Vista.
Completely obscured by the smoke plume in the photograph at the top of this page, Coronado and the San Diego bay and city can be seen clearly on the southern shores of the county, just north of the international border in this image. The small wispy scudding clouds over the ocean just off the tip of Point Loma, west of Coronado, are the only water vapor clouds within 250 miles of the shoreline in any of the photographs on this page. The Santa Ana heat and winds scrub moisture and clouds off the face of the earth in the affected areas. Typically, humidity levels are in the teens during these events. Santa Anas can sometimes last more than a week, making coastal residents miserable and even crankier than usual.
Over nineteen months after the fires went out, only about half the victims of the October wildfires have replaced their destroyed homes. Many hundreds of residents are still living in temporary housing, and many others have simply moved on, unable to overcome the problems of rebuilding caused by being under-insured or uninsured. The landscape is regenerating remarkably quickly, helped along by torrential rains during the winter and spring of 2004/2005, but at this rate it will take many years for lives to get back to normal.
It has been my profound honor and good fortune to be in a position that allows me to help fire victims rebuild. In the last year and a half, I've been inspired by the quiet courage and determination it takes to get through the process of rebuilding, and to keep up one's good spirits while doing so. My problems seemed to shrink back in October, 2003, and they remain framed by that perspective. Thank you, Scott Gilmore Editor, The Gazette |
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