October 30, 2019 - California Wildfires

California's devastating fire season, spawned by extremely dry weather and pushed by roaring winds, continued to intensify in late October 2019. On October 29, CAL FIRE reported 10 major fires burning across the state.

On October 27, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image highlighting one of these fires, the Kincade Fire. Smoke from the highly active fire was blown hundreds of miles by northeasterly winds, first across coastal California and then over the Pacific Ocean. Where the steady winds weakened, smoke rolled to the west and to the east.

The Kincaid Fire, located in Sonoma County, grew to 75,144 acres on October 29, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention (CAL FIRE). The fire is located at John Kincade Road and Burned Mountain Road, northeast of Geyserville and is classified as a "vegetation fire". It ignited on October 23 and has destroyed 124 structures, damaged 23 structures, and two injuries have been reported. More than 90,000 structures were considered “threatened” at the time of the report, most of which were residential. Over 100,000 residents have been evacuated. The fire was only 15% contained and the cause is under investigation. Northeast winds are forecast to pick back up on the evening of October 29, increasing the difficulty of controlling the fire, especially in the steep, narrow terrain that characterizes some of the area.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 10/27/2019
Resolutions: 1km (394.8 KB), 500m (1.1 MB), 250m (2 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC