NASA Imagery Shows California Wildfires From Space With Over 300,000 Acres Currently on Fire (View Satellite Pics)

California wildfires continue to wreak havoc and now the magnitude of it is revealed in new satellite footage by NASA. The imagery captured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA's Suomi NPP satellite reveals the imagery of the massive fire that took place after a series of lightning strikes caused the fires across northern California that has become untamable in the current situations.

NASA's recent California wildfires update revealed: "The fires range in size from 14 acres, the Beach Fire, all the way up to the largest of these fires, the Canyon Zone fire which is a complex of six fires, that is a total of 10,000 acres and 0% contained. The Loyalton fire, currently the largest fire in California, located near the Tahoe National Forest and near the border with Nevada is 43,444 acres in size and 10% contained." In the below image, taken from Imagery from NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information Systems Worldview map, shows about 32 fires throughout California.

Currently, Ohlone fire that began on August 16 is the largest active fire and has burned at least 97,092 acres and hasn't been contained. After the Ohlone fire is the SCU Lightning Complex fire (85,000 acres burned) and the LNU Lightening Complex fire (46,225 acres burned).  According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, extreme heat and lightning storms have caused many of the fires across California. Check tweet by NWS Bay Area:

Several wildfires burning in the western US state of California spread across vast acres of land. Local authorities immediately issued mandatory evacuations. In the northern Lassen County, the wildfire, which was initially reported on Saturday afternoon, spread over to 5,800 acres with zero percent containment. Yesterday, August 19 reports of a pilot's death battling a fire in central California came in. His helicopter crashed and Cal Fire said in a statement that a helicopter crashed on Wednesday while fighting a wildfire in western Fresno County. The Bell UH-1H helicopter was on a water-dropping mission on the Hills Fire, about 9 miles (14 kilometres) south of Coalinga.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 20, 2020 10:15 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).