During August 2012, numerous wildfires burned throughout pine and cork oak forests in northern Algeria. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this view of fires burning across the Tell Atlas mountain range on August 25, 2012. Red outlines indicate hot spots where MODIS detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with the fires. Wildfires have burned in the region since June due to the same heatwave that has fueled fires in Spain and Portugal. The fires had destroyed 64,000 hectares (160,000 acres) of orchards and 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of cereal crops by August 23, but Algeria appeared to be on track for a bumper harvest nonetheless.
References & Resources
- FAO. (2012, August 23) Algeria: Food Security Snapshot. Accessed August 27, 2102.
- News24. (2012, August 14) Wildfire Ravages 20,0000ha in Algeria. Accessed August 27, 2102.
- NOAA. (2012, August 9) State of the Climate: July Wildfires. Accessed August 27, 2102.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.
