The Riley Road Fire northwest of Houston, Texas, started on September 5, 2011. The Incident Information System reported that, as of September 14, the fire was 100 percent contained, with just a few hotspots still smoldering. By that time, the fire had burned 18,960 acres (7,670 hectares) in parts of Montgomery, Waller, and Grimes Counties.
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image on September 12, 2011. This image uses infrared, red, and green wavelengths of light. Vegetation is red, and sparsely vegetated or bare areas are pink-beige. Burn scars are dark gray-brown. One burn scar extends into the nearby city of Magnolia. The Incident Information System reported that the fire had damaged 23 structures and destroyed 76 others.
References & Resources
- Incident Information System. (2011, September 14). Riley Road. Accessed September 15 2011.
NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Michon Scott.
