Extraordinary satellite imagery captures the ferocity of wildfires that recently roared through the High Plains

The Sentinel-2 satellite captured this image of a wildfire burning near Putnam, Oklahoma on April 13, 2918. (Source: Sentinel-2 satellite data from ESA processed by Pierre Markuse) That's right — this image of the roaring Rhea Fire in Oklahoma was captured not from an aircraft but by a satellite about 500 miles above Earth's surface. At the time, on April 13th, the blaze was just getting going. Pushed by strong winds and exacerbated by high temperatures and bone-dry humidity of just 3 percent at one point, the blaze turned into Oklahoma's third megafire in three years. That term, "megafire," is not my attempt at being sensationalistic. The National Interagency Fire Center has officially adopted it to describe a fire that has burned at least 100,000 acres. Before 100 percent containment was achieved today, the Rhea Fire had reached 286,196 acres in size — equivalent to more than three quarters the ...