As Northern Lights Shimmer, a Glacier National Park Fire Lights up the Nighttime Sky — and Is Visible From Space

The birth of the Reynolds Creek Fire in Glacier National Park on the afternoon of July, 21 is seen in this animation of images from the GOES-15 weather satellite. To the north of the smoke plume from the Reynolds Creek Fire you can also see another plume from a fire in neighboring Canada. (Source: CIMSS Satellite Blog/SSEC-University of Wisconsin/NOAA) Although the Reynolds Creek Fire burning in Glacier National Park may not be particularly large (at least not yet), its smoke plume and even its glow have been easily visible from space. And back on the ground, photographers have already captured some spectacular images of the blaze. The wildfire began at about 3:45p.m. on Tuesday, July, 21, about six miles east of Logan Pass in Montana's Glacier National Park. Lightning is the likely culprit, but a definitive determination hasn't been made yet. It has been burning along the shores of Saint Mary's Lake, west of the town of St. Mary. You can watch the wildfire's birth and initial growth in the animation of GOES-15 weather satellite images above (courtesy of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin). Look for the development of a gray plume of smoke just a little above and to the right of center. (You can also see a smaller plume from another fire to the northwest, across the border in British Columbia, Canada.) Following the fire's birth, gusty winds pushed the flames forward quickly, and also promoted erratic fire behavior. The blaze soon prompted precautionary evacuations inside the park, and in the St. Mary area (which also was evacuated in 2006, when the much larger Red Eagle fire inched to within just a few hundred yards of town). https://twitter.com/PhotosbyPhilipG/status/624618788701364226/photo/1 It's not every day that you can see the glow from a dangerous wildfire competing with the shimmering Northern Lights. But that's exactly what happened overnight on Thursday — as captured by photographer Philip Granrud. The glow was also visible to the Suomi NPP satellite before dawn local time on July 22: