May 2, 2017
West Mims Fire Surpasses 100,000 Acres
Winds stoked a wildfire on the Florida-Georgia border, even as more than 450 fire personnel scrambled to keep the flames at bay. The West Mims Fire has burned more than 100,500 acres (155 square miles), according to a report from the InciWeb Incident Information System.
On May 2, 2017, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a natural-color image of the smoke plume. The second, false-color image from MODIS shows land that has already burned over the past few weeks, as well as the current fire front. The image combines shortwave infrared, near-infrared, and green light to show the contrast between burned area (brown) and unscarred land (green).
Officials closed a section of U.S. Highway 177 and warned of low visibility due to smoke in areas downwind of the blaze. So far, only 8 percent of the fire is under control.
References & Resources
- News 4 JAX (2017, May 1) Okefenokee wildfire now 4 times size of Disney World Accessed May 3, 2017.
- InciWeb (2017, May 1) West Mims Fire Evening Update Tuesday May 2, 2017 Accessed May 3, 2017.
NASA images by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption by Pola Lem.
None
