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June 30, 2025 - Burn Scars in Utah
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High air temperatures, extremely low humidity, and gusting winds triggered conditions favorable for wildfire ignition and spread in Utah in late spring and early summer 2025. Two particularly large fires seared the landscape in the southwest section of the state in June, triggering evacuations and leaving large portions of vegetation seared.
On June 22, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this false-color image capturing the burn scars from the France Canyon Fire (northeast) and the Forsyth Fire (southwest). In this type of image, vegetation appears green, water is blue, open land shows in shades of tan. Burn scars can take on various hues depending on many factors, including the soil type, the completeness of the burn, and how recently the area was on fire. Burn scars left very recently tend to appear brick red.
The largest burn scar shows the location of the France Canyon Fire, which was ignited by lightning on the afternoon of June 11 on the Powell Ranger District on the Dixie National Forest, according to a report published on the InciWeb Incident Information System website. It was burning in rough terrain with plenty of conifer, understory, and dead and downed lumber. By June 29, this wildland fire had seared 32,978 acres and was 24 percent contained.
The Forsyth Fire was first reported on June 19 near Pine Valley and was also ignited by lighting. As of June 29, it had burnt 12,188 acres and, with the support of 672 personnel fighting the fire, had reached 26 percent containment. Initial containment lines ran through the valley of the Pine Valley community, where the threat from the wild land fire required mandatory evacuations. With increasing containment, residents have been permitted to return to their homes.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 6/22/2025
Resolutions:
1km (126.1 KB), 500m (297.1 KB), 250m (186.1 KB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
High air temperatures, extremely low humidity, and gusting winds triggered conditions favorable for wildfire ignition and spread in Utah in late spring and early summer 2025. Two particularly large fires seared the landscape in the southwest section of the state in June, triggering evacuations and leaving large portions of vegetation seared.
On June 22, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this false-color image capturing the burn scars from the France Canyon Fire (northeast) and the Forsyth Fire (southwest). In this type of image, vegetation appears green, water is blue, open land shows in shades of tan. Burn scars can take on various hues depending on many factors, including the soil type, the completeness of the burn, and how recently the area was on fire. Burn scars left very recently tend to appear brick red.
The largest burn scar shows the location of the France Canyon Fire, which was ignited by lightning on the afternoon of June 11 on the Powell Ranger District on the Dixie National Forest, according to a report published on the InciWeb Incident Information System website. It was burning in rough terrain with plenty of conifer, understory, and dead and downed lumber. By June 29, this wildland fire had seared 32,978 acres and was 24 percent contained.
The Forsyth Fire was first reported on June 19 near Pine Valley and was also ignited by lighting. As of June 29, it had burnt 12,188 acres and, with the support of 672 personnel fighting the fire, had reached 26 percent containment. Initial containment lines ran through the valley of the Pine Valley community, where the threat from the wild land fire required mandatory evacuations. With increasing containment, residents have been permitted to return to their homes.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 6/22/2025
Resolutions:
1km (126.1 KB), 500m (297.1 KB), 250m (186.1 KB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
