Scorching temperatures and hot winds were making the job of firefighters in drought-stricken Portugal extremely difficult in early October 2005. According to news reports, 7 of the country’s 18 administrative divisions were experiencing the “maximum” level of fire danger, with many more at the “very high” level. These blazes flared up over the first weekend of October, after a month of relatively quiet conditions following the major fires of July and August.
This image of the fires was captured on October 3, 2005, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Actively burning areas are outlined in red. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
