Panther Fire, California

Panther Fire, California. On May 2, 2013, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this view of the Panther and Cedar wildfires burning near Lassen Volcanic National Park. Red outlines indicate hot spots where MODIS detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with fires.

While the wind in southern California has been screaming the last two days, at the Panther Springs weather station 6 miles northwest of the Panther Fire the wind was quite sedate on Thursday, ranging from zero to three mph. However, reports from the fire say the fire has been pushed by strong down canyon winds. The humidity was low on Thursday, in the teens. The fire is in the Mill Creek and Deer Creek drainages. There is no imminent structure or infrastructure threat.
One of the U.S. Forest Service infrared mapping aircraft mapped the fire Thursday evening, so hopefully by Friday morning a detailed map will be available. While the wind in southern California has been screaming the last two days, at the Panther Springs weather station 6 miles northwest of the Panther Fire the wind was quite sedate on Thursday, ranging from zero to three mph. However, reports from the fire say the fire has been pushed by strong down canyon winds. The humidity was low on Thursday, in the teens. The fire is in the Mill Creek and Deer Creek drainages. There is no imminent structure or infrastructure threat.

Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.