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The Fort McMurray Wildfire, As Seen From Space | The Weather Channel
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Wildfire Safety and Preparedness

Here's how the wildfire looks from miles above Earth.

BySean Breslin•May 9, 2016




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A gigantic wildfire in Fort McMurray, Canada, has burned at least 250,000 acres of land – a number so large that it can be hard to comprehend when viewed from the ground. When a big wildfire grows out of control, the best way to fully understand the scope of the disaster is to see it from space.

(MORE: The Latest on the Fort McMurray Fire | One Image That Sums It All Up)

NASA, NOAA and other groups have been hard at work in recent days, capturing imagery of the huge inferno and sharing their views on the internet. Here are some of the jaw-dropping images that have been shared since the wildfire exploded.

Pyrocumulus clouds so tall, there was a shadow


Fort McMurray wildfire smoke plume and pyrocumulus clouds on Tuesday, May 3, 2016.

(NASA)


 

Flames brighter than an entire city


This nighttime image shows light from the Fort McMurray fire in the early-morning hours of Thursday, May 5, 2016.

(NOAA/NASA CIMSS/SSEC)


 

Smoke reaches the U.S. Gulf Coast


(NOAA/NASA CIMSS/SSEC)


 

Heavy smoke over the Northern Plains


An image of the wildfire smoke taken over the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains on Sunday, May 8, 2016.

(NASA/NOAA/DOD)


 

And south of New Jersey


NASA's Aqua satellite spotted Fort McMurray wildfire smoke over the mid-Atlantic region on Sunday, May 8, 2016.

(NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response)


 

The burn scar on Tuesday


(NASA)


 

The burn scar again on Wednesday


(NASA)


 

And again on Thursday


(NASA)


 

The sobering reality that many homes were lost to the inferno


This image, acquired Thursday, May 5, 2016, shows a Fort McMurray neighborhood destroyed by the wildfire, as seen on Google's crisis map.

This image, acquired Thursday, May 5, 2016, shows a Fort McMurray neighborhood destroyed by the wildfire, as seen on Google's crisis map.

(Image via TerraBella)


 

The unusually hot weather was one ingredient for this disaster


Land surface temperature anomalies from April 26 through May 3, 2016 over Canada and the northern U.S., relative to the 2000-2010 average.

Land surface temperature anomalies from April 26 through May 3, 2016 over Canada and the northern U.S., relative to the 2000-2010 average.

(NASA Earth Observatory)


MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Aerials of the Fort McMurray Fire



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