There are several wildfires burning in Arizona as the wildfire season in the West begins in earnest. This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on June 08, 2019 and highlights two of the ongoing fires. The fire in the upper right portion of the image is the Coldwater Fire which began on May 30, 2019 with a lightning strike. The fire is now 6,150 acres in size and is 10 percent contained. The fire has been mainly creeping through the understory. On Friday June 8, 2019, crews conducted burnout operations causing a 1,100 acre increase bringing the total burned acres to 5,800. Since no precipitation is forecast for the next several days, along with higher temperatures, fire activity is likely to increase. Weather in the area continues to be hot and dry. Firefighters are restricting fire activity to within a 17,400-acre boundary where the fire may run its natural course.
The other large fire in Arizona is seen in this satellite image near the bottom center. This is the Mountain Fire which began on June 07, 2019. Its cause was human in nature and that is currently being investigated. The size of this fire is 7,470 acres and is 50 percent contained. The fire is completely on the Tonto National Forest, burning east and northeast toward Horseshoe and Bartlett Lake.
NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks “right now.” Actively burning fires, detected by thermal bands, are shown as red points and when accompanied by smoke, as in this image, are indicative of fire. Image Courtesy: NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Caption: Lynn Jenner with information from Inciweb.