File:Fires continue to burn on West Coast (MODIS 2018-08-19).jpg

English: The ferocious fire season which has been burning hundreds of thousands of acres across the western United States continued through mid-August, 2018. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of California smoke and fire on August 16.

Red “hot spots” are areas where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected areas of increased temperature. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for actively burning fire. Light gray smoke rises from most of the more southerly fires while thick dark gray smoke covers the landscape in the north. In many areas the smoke is so thick that it obscures the ground beneath. The bright white area in the west is low cloud (fog) that covers the offshore Pacific Ocean and extends onto the coast, bringing some moisture to that area.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 103 active large fires were burning in the United States on August 17. This includes 8 in California, 10 in Colorado, 9 in Oregon, 9 in Washington, 11 in Idaho, 1 in Nevada, and 12 in Arizona. CALFIRE’s map shows 18 active fires on August 18, some of which may not be considered “active large” fires.

The largest fire, the Carr Fire, has burned 227,085 acres as of August 18 and is 81% contained. It has destroyed 1,079 residences, 22 commercial structures and 503 outbuildings and damaged 190 residences, 26 commercial structures, and 63 outbuildings.