image: It seemed as though California had evaded being hard hit by the usual over-the-top wildfire season this year, however, the Tejana fire may be changing that story. NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image with its MODIS instrument of the Tejana fire on Sep. 05, 2019. The wildfire broke out on Sep 04, 2019 in Riverside County (80 miles south of Los Angeles) at 4:43 pm PDT and quickly grew from 25 to over 900 acres, and is now 2,000 acres on Friday, Sep. 06 causing over 1,200 residents to be quickly evacuated. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reports that the fire at present is only 20% contained and the cause of the blaze is still under investigation. The fire has also spread to several cities within Riverside County including Murrieta. The National Weather Center is not predicting favorable weather for firefighting this weekend with temperatures over the weekend ranging from 87 to 99 degrees F and winds from the west at 14 to 17 mph. Fighting the blaze will definitely be challenging for the 270 personnel currently on site. NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks 'right now.' Actively burning fires, detected by thermal bands, are shown as red points. view more
Credit: Image Courtesy: NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Caption: Lynn Jenner with information from CAL Fire