On the morning of September 22, 2009, a wildfire broke out in Ventura County, California. As of 7:00 a.m. local time on September 23, the Guiberson Fire had spread over 8,500 acres (roughly 35 square kilometers) and was just 10 percent contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. CNN reported that the fire’s threat to hundreds of homes prompted California’s governor to declare a state of emergency. According to the Los Angeles Times, the fire was expected to spread to 10,000 acres (about 40 square kilometers) on September 23, 2009, thanks to low humidity and strong winds.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image shortly before noon local time (19:00 UTC) on September 22, 2009. Red lines indicate hotspots where MODIS detected unusually hot surface temperatures, and they roughly outline the Guiberson Fire’s perimeter. Within the perimeter, source points for the smoke plumes appear as tiny, pale gray pinpoints. Smoke blows southwestward away from the fire and toward the coast.
NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images of this area. Caption by Michon Scott.
