August 21, 2020
On August 21, 2020, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite captured natural-color imagery of smoke plumes from wildfires in California and other parts of the American West. As of August 21, fires had caused more than 100,000 people to evacuate their homes in California. The blazes threatened thousands of buildings and took at least six lives, according to news media. Fires have consumed more than 700,000 acres (2,800 square miles) in California since August 15.
References & Resources
- ABC (2020, August 21) California fires burn 771,000 acres, larger than Rhode Island, CAL FIRE says. Accessed August 21, 2020.
- Associated Press (2020, August 21) California fires claim 6 lives, threaten thousands of homes. Accessed August 21, 2020.
- San Francisco Chronicle (2020, August 21) California fires live updates: 119,000 flee homes as 560 active blazes now rage in California. Accessed August 21, 2020.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview . Caption by Kasha Patel.
