That was a mistake—going out into the back yard to water the plants. (Using a watering can, of course.) It's hot, still and very smoky. I'm not sure of the visibility in the city but a friend in the Hurstbridge – Diamond Creek area estimated it was down to about 400m there. And we're about 150km from the closest of the Goulburn – Ovens – Heyfield fires. I can't imagine what it must be like for those of you in that part of the state.

Here's part of the latest high-resolution image from NASA. (I've chopped it down to 152 KB, so it's safe for dial-up.) The original is over 8 MB. Dial-up users can check out the thumbnails at this site.