Wildfires Continue to Rage in California

This Landsat 8 image displays wildfire continuing to set the Sierra Nevada ablaze at 10:45 AM PST on November 8th, which claimed 6,713 total structures in Paradise, California. The image was produced with a 4-3-2 Landsat image, a combination of visible (red and green) and near-infrared light, to bring out active areas of the fire. Called the Camp Fire, this fire began at 6:30 AM and had destroyed over 100,000 acres of land in the next two days. The image does an admirable job showing the direction of the fire, with the cusp of it very clearly seen on the top-right of the image, and the wind can be seen blowing smoke and ash to the bottom-left. Since the image was taken in the earlier part of the fire's wrath, its long-term damage to the area is still obscured by smoke, and much of the damage had not even happened yet. Nonetheless, the vivid contrast between the bright red and orange flames and surrounding green forestry is quite stunning.