Picture of the Day - Cuesta Fire Revenant

In recent weeks I have noticed sporadic smokes rising out of last summer's Cuesta Fire (began August 16 and contained August 28, 2015) burn area. Over the past week I have noticed this escalate to two or three smokes rising simultaneously. Yesterday and today it became several such smokes despite the rainfall last night and other rains in recent weeks. This is testament to both how "dirty" this part of the burn area is (meaning incomplete burning within the burn area allowing for later flare-ups) as well as to the dryness of the fuels as the record-setting drought continues despite recent rains. I shot this image this afternoon from the shoulder of US101 just north of Highway 58 en route to Cal Poly. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).