Vast smoky pall from California wildfires spotted by NASA satellite

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Residents assess damage as hundreds of wildfires continue to burn in California

Crews make progress in deadly California wildfire fight; Claudia Cowan reports from Solano County.

A vast smoky pall from California’s wildfires has been spotted from space by NASA’s Terra satellite.

A remarkable image captured by the satellite on Aug. 24 shows smoke from hundreds of fires stretching across much of the state.

Since Aug. 15, hundreds of fires have burned nearly 2,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Delaware.

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE DEATH TOLL REACHES 7, AS OVER 14,000 FIREFIGHTERS WORK TO PUT OUT BLAZES

The blazes have killed at least seven people, burned some 1,300 homes and other buildings, and prompted evacuation orders that still affect about 140,000 people.

NASA's Terra satellite captured this image of smoke-covered California on Aug. 24, 2020. (NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System [EOSDIS])

The largest of the fires, the SCU Lightning Complex, has burned 365,772 acres and is 20% contained as of Aug. 25, according to the CalFire website. The second-largest, the LNU Lightning Complex, had burned 356,326 acres and was 27% contained, CalFire said.

“Even discounting these fires there are still hundreds of other fires burning across the state as can be seen in this Terra satellite image taken on Aug. 24, 2020,” said NASA on its website. “Red dots litter the landscape designating areas which are most likely fires--so many fires, in fact, that the dots blur together and individual fire are no longer visible.”

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The Suomi NPP satellite, which is operated by NASA and NOAA, tracked aerosols over the U.S. from the California fires. (NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System [EOSDIS])

An image captured by the Suomi NPP satellite, which is operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), also tracked aerosols over the U.S. from the California fires.

The Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers