Edhat Staff
(Photo: NASA Earth Observatory)
As of Wednesday afternoon, The Thomas Fire has grown to 65,000 acres in Ventura County and is creeping towards Santa Barbara County.
It may be hard to grasp the sheer size of this blaze and how quickly it grew. Plus, this is currently one of 4 fires burning right now in Southern California.
The Rye Fire is located near Santa Clarita, the Creek Fire is growing in Sylmar, and the Skirball Fire is growing off Highway 405 in the Bel Air region of Los Angeles.
On Tuesday, December 5, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a natural-color image of thick smoke streaming from the fires. Below is the full photo captured by NASA.
On the same day, NASA reported the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) on the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite captured the data for a false-color image (below) of the burn scar. Active fires appear orange; the burn scar is brown. Unburned vegetation is green; developed areas are gray. The Sentinel-2 image is based on observations of visible, shortwave infrared, and near infrared light.
As the Thomas Fire continues to grow, the maps are not able to keep up with the actual size of it. Below is the most recent map available, updated by Ventura County at 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday
The below map provides a view of all fires happening in California. Zoom in to see more from the Thomas Fire, although updates are slow for this one.
The National Weather Service shows how winds on Wednesday will impact the fires.
Smoke model showing some of the heavy smoke being blown offshore later tonight. Still a lot of smoke remains. #CAwx #ThomasFire #RyeFire #CreekFire #SkirballFIre pic.twitter.com/59KmUjSZ6v
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) December 6, 2017
