August 2, 2022 - Smoke from Western Fires StretchAacross the United States

West Coast Fires sending smoke across the US
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Smoke stretched from California’s Pacific Coast to Nebraska—a distance
of nearly 2,000 km (1,243 mi)—in late July 2022. The Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra
satellite acquired this true-color image showing fire and smoke on July
23.

Each red “hot spot” marks a location 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 actively
burning fire. Large fires are visible in Northern California, near the
Oregon border as well as Idaho and Montana.

Long periods of high temperatures, low humidity, and gusty winds, along
with acres of trees killed by pine beetles and long-standing drought
has left some areas of the Western United States at high risk for
wildfire. According to InciWeb Incident Information System, on August 1
there were 6 large active fires in New Mexico, 16 in Arizona, 4 in
Utah, 3 in Colorado (two of these are prescribed burns), 2 in Wyoming,
4 in Nevada, 7 in Idaho, 5 in Montana, 1 in Washington, and 5 in
California. CALFIRE identified an additional four fires in California.
InciWeb does not report fires managed only by CALFIRE. It is important
to note that the reported fires are only large or notable fires, and
there are other smaller blazes in several locations.

The McKinney Fire, sitting near the border with Oregon, is contributing
a large amount of smoke to the scene. This wildfire was first reported
on the afternoon of July 29, 2022, on the Oak Knoll Ranger District of
the Klamath National Forest. Despite a robust and rapid response, the
fire quickly exploded in intensity, reaching 55,493 acres burnt by the
evening of August 1. The McKinney Fire was cooled a bit on the night of
July 31, thanks to rainfall. Unfortunately, the rain was spotty, with
heavy rain in some areas to zero precipitation in other areas. Air
temperatures had dropped a bit on August 1, and relative humidity was
slightly higher, helping to moderate fire behavior. However, a Red Flag
watch for extreme fire risk remains in place. The McKinney Fire is zero
percent contained as of August 1, with no estimated containment date
reported.

A second fire is also burning in Klamath National Forest, close to the
McKinney Fire. It was sparked on July 29 by lightning strike and has
grown to 1,989 acres as of August 1. It is also zero percent contained.

In its August 1 report on the McKinney and China Fires, the US Forest
Service notes, “There have been numerous lightning strikes in the area
in the last 48 hours, and at least 12 holdover fires have been detected
on the Klamath National Forest, in addition to the ones listed above.
They range in size from 1/10 acre to several acres. All are being fully
suppressed.”

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 7/31/2022
Resolutions: 1km (616.5 KB), 500m (2.1 MB), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-08-02

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