August Complex fire leaves behind massive burn scar
August Complex fire leaves behind massive burn scar. Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory shows the burn scar from the August Complex fire in Northern California.
The massive complex started out as 38 separate fires that were triggered by lightning on August 16 and 17.
The blaze consumed hundreds of thousands of acres of Mendocino National Forest, and impacted parts of the Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers national forests as well.
According to Cal Fire, more than 4.13 million acres have been consumed by fire so far this year in a total of 8,685 incidents that destroyed 9,200 structures and claimed the lives of 31 people. August Complex fire leaves behind massive burn scar. Northern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state’s northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento area, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and most of the Central Valley, one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions.
The photo was captured on October 19, 2020 by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8.
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer
