As you may know, Texas is currently under serious draught and fire conditions, with wildfires having burned through an area roughly the size of Connecticut. Over a 1500 houses have been destroyed. The day before yesterday, due to some cooling overnight, Austin was covered in smoke from all the fires around Bastrop, Leander, Spicewood, and so forth. Quite literally; if you walked outside in North Austin you saw not just haze but large quantities of smoke as thick as a light fog. The 911 service had to issue press releases begging people to stop calling 911 over it.
Alexis Madrigal has put together some interesting graphics to help non-Texans get a better sense of how much land has been affected by wildfire devastation so far.
Kerri West has put together some pictures of the Bastrop fires.
The Texas Forest Service keeps tabs on all the new fires and on the containment of old fires.
Astronauts can see the traces of them from space.
Texas Wildfire Relief is taking donations.
