A massive fire blazing across the Texas Panhandle and parts of Oklahoma this week spans nearly 1.1 million acres (1,700 square miles), making it the largest fire in Texas history. The inferno, dubbed the Smokehouse Creek Fire, is so big that it's visible from space.
The imagery, which shows thermal hotspots linked to the Smokehouse Creek Fire, is what’s known as a false color visualization. This type of image displays portions of the infrared spectrum sensitive to fire activity. It was captured by GOES-16, a satellite that orbits roughly 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface.
On the ground, firefighters are rushing to control the fire, which grew rapidly after igniting in Hutchinson County on Feb. 26. “The reason that this fire got so big so fast is we had a goldilocks collection of circumstances, which is low relative humidity, dry [trees and grass] and high winds,” says Sean Dugan, a Texas A&M Forest Service public information officer. Although precipitation fell on Thursday, helping calm the fire, it remains only 3% contained, he says. A big concern is that windy conditions in coming days could spread this and other active fires in the area further and help fuel new ones.
