Hundreds of fires have exploded across California
Hundreds of fires have exploded across California. Today’s Image of the Day from the European Space Agency shows a massive amount of wildfire smoke lingering over California and the Pacific Ocean.
Nearly 11,000 lightning strikes in just 72 hours triggered hundreds of wildfires across California. Hundreds of fires have exploded across California
Record-breaking high temperatures helped the fires ignite, while strong winds have helped them spread across more than 300,000 acres since August 16. Hundreds of fires have exploded across California
In the San Francisco Bay Area, thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes.
The shocking number of fires has put an enormous amount of strain on California’s resources, with firefighters deployed from one end of the state to the other. Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a statewide emergency. California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States of America. With over 39.3 million residents across a total area of about 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area, and is also the world’s thirty-fourth most populous subnational entity. California is also the most populated subnational entity in North America, and has its state capital in Sacramento.
The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite on August 19, 2020.
Image Credit: ESA
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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer
