Just got back into town to find the Aspen Fire has destroyed most of Summerhaven, a town on top of Mt Lemmon, outside of Tucson. The U of A Webcam has a bunch of images of the plume in the distance (that big building in the right foreground is the social sciences building, by the way, where my office is). The fire has destroyed about 9,000 acres so far. One of the earliest entries in this blog was about a similar, larger fire in the same area last year. The management of forest fires is a difficult topic both politically and scientifically. Trusty RA and co-author Alan Schussman has some commentary.

Update: Here’s a time-lapse movie of the fire’s progress, taken from the University webcam.