Images
January 8, 2026 - Fires in Argentina
Tweet
Multiple wildfires burned across Chubut Province in Argentina’s Patagonia region in early January 2026.
According to several news reports, the largest fire started on January 5 near the village of Puerto Patriada and had destroyed thousands of hectares of forest within 24 hours. At least 3,000 people have been evacuated from the town’s lake resort, located north of Lake Epuyén as hundreds of firefighters work to contain the fire.
Additional fires have been reported in the provinces of Neuquen, Santa Cruz, Rio Negro, as southern Buenos Aires province. Arson is suspected in at least one of the fires, with the government offering a reward of 50 million pesos for information on the persons responsible for starting the fire.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the Chubut Province fires on January 6. Red “hot spots” mark areas where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures typical of actively burning fire. Smoke pours from the fires and covers much of the region while snow tops the nearby Andes mountains.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 1/6/2026
Resolutions:
1km (1.8 MB), 500m (622.4 KB), 250m (187.6 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Multiple wildfires burned across Chubut Province in Argentina’s Patagonia region in early January 2026.
According to several news reports, the largest fire started on January 5 near the village of Puerto Patriada and had destroyed thousands of hectares of forest within 24 hours. At least 3,000 people have been evacuated from the town’s lake resort, located north of Lake Epuyén as hundreds of firefighters work to contain the fire.
Additional fires have been reported in the provinces of Neuquen, Santa Cruz, Rio Negro, as southern Buenos Aires province. Arson is suspected in at least one of the fires, with the government offering a reward of 50 million pesos for information on the persons responsible for starting the fire.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the Chubut Province fires on January 6. Red “hot spots” mark areas where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures typical of actively burning fire. Smoke pours from the fires and covers much of the region while snow tops the nearby Andes mountains.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 1/6/2026
Resolutions:
1km (1.8 MB), 500m (622.4 KB), 250m (187.6 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
