File:Burn Scars in the Western United States (MODIS 2024-10-16).jpg

English: October 14, 2024 June 23, 2024

Hot, dry weather set the stage for a vicious wildfire season across the Western United States in summer and autumn 2024. Wildland fires torched hundreds of thousands of acres in the West this year, ranging from the Pacific Northwest southward to the Desert Southwest.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, as of late September, the entire United States had seen 38,143 fires in 2024, which had burned more than 7.8 million acres. While the number of wildfires was below the year-to-date average, the total acres burned was well above the 10-year average—suggesting a trend towards larger fires.

On October 14, 2024, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of burn scars scattered across the Western United States. It is paired with a second Terra MODIS false-color image acquired on June 23, 2024, of the same area. The images are centered on the Great Basin, an area bounded by the Wasatch Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevada to the west and the Snake River Plain to the north. This includes most of Nevada, part of Utah, and sections of Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and California. The June image shows the landscape prior to the start of the fire season, which ramped up dramatically in early July, while the October image shows the same area as fire season was winding down.

This type of false-color image helps separate burn scars —which may range in color from black, to tan or brick red—from vegetation (bright green), water (blue tones), clouds (white or tinted with light electric blue), and salt pans (bright blue). Smoke may also appear light blue.

Dozens of burn scars are scattered across the Great Basin, most of which look brick red—which suggests they are very recent. The largest concentration of scars can be seen in southern Oregon south of the Snake River. A cluster of relatively large burn scars are in and around the Malheur National Forest while smaller scars can be found in the Cascade Mountains, in the west of the state. It’s not obvious, but several fires continued to burn in both locations as of October 14. To the east, an area of bright blue snakes through the valleys of the Rocky Mountains in Idaho, marking smoke from an actively burning fire. Dark burn scars also dot the hills nearby.

The largest burn scar can be seen in the southwestern corner (lower left) of the October 14 image. The oval-shaped, dark brown scar was created by the Park Fire. That fire was deliberately sparked by arson on the afternoon of July 24, according to CALFIRE. It has burned 429,603 acres in Butte and Tehama Counties, California and northeast of the city of Chico. It was 100 percent contained by September 30, but crews are still working to repair suppression efforts and watching for smoldering areas. A suspect has been arrested and charged with arson.

Witnesses stated that a male was seen pushing a car that was on fire into a gully in Upper Bidwell Park near Chico. The car went about 60 feet down and embankment and ignited vegetation. The Park Fire became the fourth-largest fire in California’s history.