I thought that because of the dense smoke, I might be able to view the weather layer for my Yahoo Streets in Maemo Mapper. What a big surprise! This is not a joke. I could clearly see heavy green blocks that would normally indicate rain. There was no rain in the entire area. I was viewing either fire or smoke!

My screen shot of the fire area near Corona, California using Yahoo Streets in Maemo Mapper with the "Weather" layer enabled.

I wish technology was currently better at keeping such disasters from getting that big...

Layers and layers of Southern California Wildfires for Google Maps (November 2008 Edition)

I was in Anaheim Hills at the time of this fire and you could barely see the sun from the smoke layer.

The Maemo Mapper thing is very interesting though, but it is not surprising based on how much smoke I could see from the ground.

Another thought. Since I have my "Weather" layer set for 1 minute updates, in theory, you could view the quick formation of a "twister" tornado near your home.

I got stuck in that fire and ended up staying at 2 different Hotels Anaheim California. I hope that never happens again.

I was there that weekend for an Anaheim Wedding and ended up experiencing this big fire. I got stuck at the Hilton Hotel in Anaheim longer than what I had planned for.