Veld fires have threatened several areas of South Africa and the city of Port Elizabeth saw one house completely engulfed by flames by the runaway bush fire. The fire that destroyed the house started late on Tuesday afternoon (6th) and quickly spread with the situation aggravated by gusting gale force winds ranging between 35 to 55 miles per hour. The weather report from that area is not predicted to help matters as the South African Weather Service warns of extremely high fire danger conditions expected over the Eastern Cape which includes the area on this image. Extremely hot conditions and dry weather. Rainfall is predicted for Wednesday, but with the weather that could spark lightning strikes leading to more fires in the area.
NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite collected this natural-color image using the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument on December 07, 2016. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from the South African Weather Service.
Suomi NPP is managed by NASA and NOAA.