The usually dry Gila River Basin erupted into flame from an apparent lightning strike, fueled by high tempetures, strong winds, dry conditions and an endless supply of tumble weeds.
The smoke that drifted westward blotted out the sun in Phoenix, leaving the taste of smoke in the air and providing an excellent opportunity to photograph the sun.
The smoke filter gave the sun a red glow that made it possible to look at the sun without it burning your eyes or the image being nothing more than a yellow blur.
A cool ring around the sun is visible in this photo… and fortunatly for everybody, everywhere, there is no sign of Planet X.
We parked at 99th Avenue and Baseline roads in Avondale and walked towards the river bottom. Local residents turned out to watch all of the people who despite $4.00 plus gas prices, drove out to their normally quiet street to see what all the smoke was about.
Luckily no houses were lost and no one was hurt, as the fire as been contained to the river basin.
