On June 19, 2016, lightning ignited a fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Since then, the Fuller fire has charred more than 14,000 acres (56 square kilometers).
On July 16, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image of smoke billowing from the fire. Areas where MODIS detected unusually warm temperatures associated with fire are shown in red.
The photograph below was taken on July 16, 2016, by a firefighter associated with the Southwest Coordination Center. It shows smoke rising near the rim of the canyon along Cape Royal Road.
As of July 19, 2016, the National Interagency Fire Center reported that fires in the United States had burned 2,706,290 acres—a number that was below the annual average for the prior ten years at this point in the season.
References & Resources
- AZCentral (2016, April 21) Rain slows growth of Fuller Fire at Grand Canyon's North Rim. Accessed July 20, 2016.
- InciWeb (2016, July 19) Fuller Fire. Accessed July 20, 2016.
- National Interagency Fire Center (2016, July 19) Daily Statistics 7/19/2016. Accessed July 20, 2016.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.
