This story appears in the April 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine. On a blistering day in the megalopolis that is southern California ... a finger across a map of some 60,000 acres ...

Meteorologists warned of Santa Ana winds for parts of Southern California earlier this week. Most wind advisories will expire ...

He and the National Geographic Society’s map policy committee had been considering the change for years, watching as scientists and the press increasingly used the term Southern Ocean.