The summer of 2000 is shaping up to be the worstU.S. fire season in four years. On July 27, 2000, fires wereburning in Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado), Montana,Idaho, Utah, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas,and California. The Mesa Verde fire has threatened some prehistoricarcheological sites. Ironically, other sites have been unearthed as vegetation wasburned away by the fire and as firefighters dug trenches to serve as firebreaks. Ina bizarre coincidence, one of the fires came close to theIdaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, the thirdnuclear site affected by fire this year.
This image from GOES 11, the newest NOAA GeostationaryOperational Environmental Satellite (GOES), shows smoke plumesand heat signatures (red) from many of fires in the western United States on theevening of July 27.
For current GOES images and more information, visit theGOES Project Science page.
References & Resources
Marit Jentoft-Nilsen and Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC, based on data provided by NOAA
