IMAGE: NASA Views Plains Grass Fires as They Claimed Hundreds of Thousands of Acres

Wildfire Safety and Preparedness

Here's what it looked like from space as the Plains grass fires of late March scorched hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

BySean Breslin•April 4, 2016

Taken by NASA's Aqua satellite on March 23, 2016, massive grass fires near the Kansas-Oklahoma border are seen here.
(NASA photo)

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A dangerous combination of ingredients came together for several days in late March, sparking massive grass fires in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas.

In just a few days, those fires exploded in size, claiming about 400,000 acres of land in the central and southern Plains. The blaze became the largest wildfire in Kansas history, destroying more than a dozen homes and killing hundreds of cattle.

Such an enormous grass fire is visible from miles above Earth, and NASA recently released a pair of images captured by the Aqua satellite during the inferno. The photo above was captured on March 23, when the blaze was largely out of control and claiming thousands of acres per day when conditions were worst for the firefighters.

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The next photo, which can be seen below, shows the aftermath. Taken four days later as the fires were mostly contained, Aqua observed a huge brown area in the land where the grass fires burned days earlier.

When the two images are placed together and set in motion, it becomes clearer just how much land was claimed in only a few days' time.

Although the fires were devastating to the land and wildlife, no human deaths were reported – a testament to the swift actions of officials who quickly evacuated areas threatened by the fast-moving grass fires.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Grass Fires in the Plains

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