Fires in California

A series of 23 fires known as the Santa Clara Complex burn in the Diablo Mountain range northeast of San Jose, California. Seen as red squares in this Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image captured by NASA´s Aqua satellite on August 27, 2003, the fires were started when a lightning storm rolled through the region on Monday, August 25. On August 29, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported that 18,457 acres had burned, threatening 40 homes. The fire was 50 percent contained.
To the west of the fires, the San Francisco Bay is surrounded by cities seen as grey patches. San Jose is the triangular region south of the bay. San Francisco is west of the bay and Oakland is on the east.

, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation’s second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California’s most populous city, and the country’s second-most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation’s most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country’s second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC