Images
September 29, 2022 - Fires in Pacific Northwest
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A robust wildfire season continued across the U.S. Pacific Northwest through late September 2022, spurred by vegetation dried out following a warm summer with sparse rainfall.
On September 27, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of smoke pouring from multiple wildfires burning in western Washington state. With moist morning fog lying across the Pacific Coast, most of the blazes were found in the forested Cascade Range.
InciWeb Incident Information System lists seven large fires active in western Washington as of September 28. These include, from north to south, the Chilliwack Complex which has burned 7,388 acres; the NW Paysayten Complex, on 17,998 acres; the Suiattle River Fire at 80 acres; the White River and Irving Peak fires burning on 9,579 acres; MOHR at 6,944 acres; the Goat Rocks Fire at 4,029 acres; and Kalama Fire at 432 acres.
Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for an area of actively burning fire. More than 7 hot spots can be seen in this image. This is likely because many of the fires are either “complexes”, which are multiple small fires handled as one larger incident, or may have multiple actively burning fronts in a single incident.
The last few days have brought cooler temperatures to much of the region, especially in the southern section of Washington, where a cold from moved through on September 28, bringing periods of light showers along with cooler temperatures and higher relative humidity. Cooler temperatures and light rain should prevail for the next day or so before a warming trend returns near the weekend.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 9/27/2022
Resolutions:
1km (78.9 KB), 500m (266.7 KB), 250m (775.7 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
A robust wildfire season continued across the U.S. Pacific Northwest through late September 2022, spurred by vegetation dried out following a warm summer with sparse rainfall.
On September 27, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of smoke pouring from multiple wildfires burning in western Washington state. With moist morning fog lying across the Pacific Coast, most of the blazes were found in the forested Cascade Range.
InciWeb Incident Information System lists seven large fires active in western Washington as of September 28. These include, from north to south, the Chilliwack Complex which has burned 7,388 acres; the NW Paysayten Complex, on 17,998 acres; the Suiattle River Fire at 80 acres; the White River and Irving Peak fires burning on 9,579 acres; MOHR at 6,944 acres; the Goat Rocks Fire at 4,029 acres; and Kalama Fire at 432 acres.
Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for an area of actively burning fire. More than 7 hot spots can be seen in this image. This is likely because many of the fires are either “complexes”, which are multiple small fires handled as one larger incident, or may have multiple actively burning fronts in a single incident.
The last few days have brought cooler temperatures to much of the region, especially in the southern section of Washington, where a cold from moved through on September 28, bringing periods of light showers along with cooler temperatures and higher relative humidity. Cooler temperatures and light rain should prevail for the next day or so before a warming trend returns near the weekend.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 9/27/2022
Resolutions:
1km (78.9 KB), 500m (266.7 KB), 250m (775.7 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
