The Ferguson fire that is closing in on its first week may get some much needed help from Mother Nature today in the form of rainstorms to the area. The 26 square-mile fire has been threatening communities near Yosemite National Park and the rain to the area could significantly help firefighter efforts to save the structures that the fire has been threatening. The problem with rainstorms is that they don’t only bring rain to the problem area. They also bring lightning strikes and wind, both of which can actually cause more issues than the rain can help. Nearly 1,400 firefighters have been sent to fight the flames to date. Thousands of dry, dead trees have been fueling this fire along with the dry, hot weather in the area. Winds have also been sending the smoke from the fire to all regions of California moving into the Yosemite valley and points north, south, and east.
NASA’s EOSDIS provides the capability to interactively browse over 600 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”. This natural-color satellite image was collected on July 18, 2018. Actively burning areas, detected by thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project. Caption: Lynn Jenner