The West's Worsening Infernos as Seen From Space

Extreme conditions exacerbated by climate change are begetting extreme fire behavior visible to satellites orbiting far overhead.

ImaGeo iconImaGeo
By Tom Yulsman
Jul 15, 2021 12:00 AMJul 14, 2021 11:57 PM
Oregon's Bootleg Fire
Oregon's Bootleg Fire, as seen by the GOES-17 weather satellite on July 12, 2021. (Credit: CIRA/RAMMB/SLIDER)

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As the Western United States continues to bake and burn, satellites are capturing dramatic imagery of large infernos that so far have incinerated more than a million acres.

Under extreme conditions on July 13th, the largest of the blazes, Oregon's Bootleg Fire, grew to more than 200,000 acres. That's equivalent to the land area of New York City. As I'm writing this on July 14th, the blaze has grown by another 12,000 acres, thanks to hot, dry and breezy conditions.

The Bootleg blaze is seen in the image above, which is itself a screenshot taken from this video:

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