Image recorded on August 16, 2023, by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Underlying Drought Conditions
The recent heat and winds contribute to the existing issue of a prolonged dry spell that has actually affected the location since in 2015 and primed plant life to burn. According to the North American Drought Monitor, much of the Pacific Northwest was either unusually dry or in moderate to severe dry spell in mid-August 2023.
Fire Statistics: Canada and the U.S.
Canada is facing one of the worst fire years it has actually in decades, according to data information released the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. On average, 4.4 million acres have generally burned by mid-August, according to the U.S. National Interagency Fire.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Astronaut photo ISS069-E-61356 was obtained on August 17, 2023, with a Nikon D5 digital video camera using a 50-millimeter lens and is supplied by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 69 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have actually been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take photos of Earth that will be of the best worth to researchers and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet.
Satellite picture of smoke dispersing across parts of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Montana on August 16, 2023, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASAs Aqua satellite.
Extreme heat, bouts of strong winds, and an extended dry spell are sustaining big forest fires in western Canada and the United States.
NASAs Aqua satellites Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) got the image above of smoke dispersing throughout parts of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Montana on August 16, 2023. That very same day, astronauts aboard the International Space Station caught the comprehensive photograph listed below, which reveals smoke in valleys in British Columbia near the towns of Golden and Revelstoke.
Current Weather Events Intensify Fires
The surge in fire activity follows the peak of an extreme heat wave that broke dozens of heat records in British Columbia on August 14. Authorities in the U.S. and Canada dispatched air quality advisories and evacuation notifications in locations where smoke and fires jeopardized neighborhoods.
Fire Statistics: Canada and the U.S.
Canada is facing one of the worst fire years it has seen in decades, according to data published by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
The surge in fire activity follows the peak of a severe heat wave that broke lots of heat records in British Columbia on August 14. Even as temperature levels moderated in the days that followed, lightning storms initiated fresh fires. Authorities in the U.S. and Canada dispatched air quality advisories and evacuation notices in areas where smoke and fires endangered communities.