Thomas fire, Southern California

From the time California began reliable record-keeping in 1932, the Thomas fire in late 2017 was the state's largest wildfire until the Mendocino Complex fire set a new record in 2018. Strong, dry Santa Ana winds spread the flames rapidly through dry brush in Southern California’s Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, burning nearly 282,000 acres. The November image shows the region before the fire began. In the December image, burned areas appear red and unburned vegetation is green. These false-color images are based on infrared data. Images taken by Landsat 8. Source: U.S. Geological Survey’s Land Remote Sensing Image Collections: here and here.