Ongoing Californian wildfires captured from space

California has endured its worst year of wildfires on record - until now more than 1000 ha have burned and thousands of homes and business have been destroyed. This Sentinel-2 satellite image captured on 5th of December gives an insight on this destructive force from space.

The image shows encroaching flames almost literally surrounding the entire city of Ojai on the far left of the image. Two smaller hotspots are also very well captured: The Rye Fire near Santa Clarita (middle) and the Creek Fire near Sylmar (right) as reported by ESA.

Scientist attribute this severe situation to the unusually high precipitation in winter which yielded major vegetation growth, followed by one of the hottest summers on record where plants dried out, leaving combustible fuel. Intensified was this already precarious situation by hot, dry air – the so-called Santa Ana winds which were exceptionally strong this December..