NASA Space Images Show Devastating Impact Of California WildfiresNASA
NASA has shared eye-opening images from space that show the devastating and wide-spread impact of the wildfires burning in the United States.
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More than 100 blazes are tearing across the west coast of the country, killing at least 15 people and prompting mass evacuations from residents in the area.
On Thursday, September 10, the National Interagency Fire Center said that fires burning across 12 western states have burned more than 4.3 million acres – roughly the size of New Jersey.
Some of the worst wildfires are located in California, Washington and Oregon, where skies turned a terrifying shade of blood-red due to the particles in the smoke-filled air.
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More than 360,000 acres have burned in Oregon alone, while more than 330,000 acres have burned in Washington since Monday – more than double the state’s total from all of 2019, Insider reports.
NASA images show wildfires on west coast of AmericaNOAA/NASA
Multiple large blazes in California are being spread by high temperatures and strong winds, causing the 250,000-acre Creek Fire in Fresno and Madera counties and the 12,600-acre El Dorado Fire in San Bernardino County, which began after a ‘pyrotechnic device’ was used at a gender-reveal party.
Images caught by NASA satellites show the true scale of the blazes, highlighting hotspots and displaying the spread of smoke across the Pacific Ocean.
One image, shown below, shows the west coast covered with a thick blanket of smoke, the land blocked entirely from view:
NASA images show extent of smoke from wildfiresNOAA/NASA
The Creek Fire, which began last Friday, September 4, produced a 45,000-foot high pyrocumulonimbus cloud that could be seen spreading from space. A pyrocumulonimbus cloud is a thunder cloud that’s formed by fire and that typically appears above fires and volcanoes.
Images from space show American wildfiresNOAA/NASAAdvert
Another set of images, seen below, show the smoke-covered land compared to an image that uses infared imaging to show the fires responsible for it.
One of the blazes in California, the August Complex fire, is considered the biggest in the state’s recorded history after consuming 471,185 acres, according to Cal Fire, per CNN. It was sparked by storm lightning on August 17, and as of today it has only been 24% contained.
Commenting on the situation in California, Regional Forester Randy Moore said:
The number of large fires and extreme fire behavior we are seeing across the state is historic. I ask all Californians and visitors to take these [national forest] closures and evacuations seriously for their own safety.
Fires in the state are much worse than this time last year, when a total of 4,927 fires burned 118,000 acres. In 2020, there have been 7,606 blazes so far.
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