A fast-moving wildfire has devastated the historic town of Lahaina on Maui, Hawaii’s second-largest island.
The image above shows the signature of the fire at 10:25 p.m. local time on August 8, 2023, as observed by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite. Much of Lahaina, a town with a resident population of nearly 13,000 people, appeared to be on fire at the time of the image. Another large fire burned northeast of Kihei.
The image was composed from OLI observations of shortwave infrared light (band 6). Infrared observations are useful for distinguishing the locations of active fires, shown here in yellow. The shortwave infrared data were overlaid on a natural-color mosaic image based on Landsat 8 observations for added geographic detail.
The fires occurred during a period of strong winds and dry conditions in Maui. Between August 7-9, 2023, the island experienced peak gusts that ranged from 45 to 67 miles (72 to 107 kilometers) per hour, according to the National Weather Service. The presence of a strong high-pressure area to north of the island and Hurricane Dora to the south may have helped fuel the winds. An analysis by the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that the southwestern part of the island was in the midst of moderate to severe drought at the time of the fires.
Maui County has reported damage to hundreds of structures, with widespread damage in the Lahaina harbor area. On August 9, authorities were continuing to conduct search and rescue operations.
NASA’s Earth Applied Sciences Disasters program area has been activated in support of the fires in Hawaii. As new information becomes available, the team will be posting maps and data products on its open-access mapping portal.
References & Resources
- County of Maui Hawaii (2023, August 9) Search and rescue team bolsters efforts in Lahaina. Accessed August 10, 2023.
- GIS Resources (2023, August 9) Why SWIR Band in Remote Sensing? Accessed August 10, 2023.
- Honolulu Star Advertiser (2023, August 10) Maui. Accessed August 10, 2023.
- NASA Disasters Program (2023, August 10) Hawai‘i Wildfires. Accessed August 10, 2023.
- NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (2023, August 10) Global Fire Data. Accessed August 10, 2023.
- National Weather Service (2023, August 9) Summary of Peak Wind Gusts - August 7-9, 2023. Accessed August 10, 2023.
- Scientific American (2023, August 9) What Caused Maui’s Devastating Wildfires? Accessed August 10, 2023.
- U.S. Drought Monitor (2023, August 10) Hawaii. Accessed August 10, 2023.
- Yale Climate Connections (2023, August 10) What caused the deadly Hawai‘i wildfires? Accessed August 10, 2023.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey . Story by Adam Voiland .
