A handful of large fires were burning in Oregon and Northern California as fall approached in 2008. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows the two states on September 15. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked with red dots.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center report on September 16, the Rattle Fire was an estimated 5,733 acres and 25 percent contained, and the Lonesome Complex was 5,886 acres and 15 percent contained. Structures were threatened in both locations, and some evacuations were in effect. The Klamath Complex was an estimated 182,693 acres and 75 percent contained. Some of the fires in the Klamath Complex had been burning since the first weekend of summer.
You can download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of the fires suitable for use with Google Earth.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
