On June 11, 2018, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color image of smoke from fires burning in southwestern Colorado.
The 416 Fire, located 21 kilometers (13 miles) north of Durango, began burning on June 1 and grew to more than 23,000 acres (93 square kilometers, or 36 square miles) by June 12. According to news reports, residents from more than 2,000 homes in the area were ordered to evacuate.
The Colorado blaze led to the closure of San Juan National Forest. Meanwhile, dry and warm conditions in the U.S. Southwest led to the closure of forests in Arizona and New Mexico due to fire danger.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Text by Kathryn Hansen.
