image: A fast and furious wildfire broke out northeast of San Francisco on June 30, 2018 and it prompted evacuations in part of Yolo County, California. According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) over 2.5 million acres have already been consumed this year by wildfires. That is in keeping with the last four years, but well over the average of the last ten years. As climate changes occur, lightning strikes from ever strengthening storms have been more numerous and dry conditions have set the stage for wildfires to break out. The County Fire started on June 30, 2018 and quickly escalated as it burned through dry grasses and underbrush urged on by high winds. Over 44,000 acres have burned and only 3% of the fire is contained. With 116 structures threatened evacuations in the area have been mandatory. More than 1,200 people were fighting the County Fire, located about 75 miles (120 kms) northeast of San Francisco. Wildland fire activity has picked up throughout all the western states. Currently, 53 fires have burned over 648,000 acres. Wildfire danger is high this 4th of July throughout the drought-stricken West. This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on July 01, 2018. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. view more
Credit: NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project, Lynn Jenner with information from CA Fire and NIFC.