re: The Southeast is covered in smoke, here is a pic of one of the Appalachian fires

When I flew to South Carolina two weeks ago, we flew over several mountain forest fires, one of which appeared very large and produced a smoke cloud which blanketed the mountain range for as far as the eye could see. It was very impressive and wondrous to see from the air. At a distance it looked like large camp fires dotting the landscape. As we got closer those "campfires" turned into massive forest fires consuming mountainsides. It was both eerie and beautiful to see from high altitude.

We must've seen the beginning of the fires because when we landed I told my brother about massive forest fires we saw in flight. He wasn't aware of mountain forest fires and he lives in Greenville, SC.

Here are a couple of photos of the fires from my airplane window: