NOAA/NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured these series of images (made into an animated GIF) showing the winds changing direction on September 6, 2020, when choking clouds of brown smoke began to billow and cascade into the Pacific Ocean.

The square miles of smoke in the image below totals 963,269.

That estimate has been computed using the measurement tool within the NASA Worldview application. .

A stunning 3.1 million acres have burned this year in California alone (per CAL fire), which is up from a total of 2.5 million acres as of Wednesday, September 9, 2020.

In addition, 805,314 acres have been lost in Oregon (State of Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard, as of 9:30am EDT Sep. 11) and 500,000 acres (Northwest Interagency Coordination Center) in Washington state.

Winds blowing through the west have been stoking fires and helping spread them quickly as evidenced in the growth of over a half million acres in less than two days.

The square miles of smoke in the image below totals 963,269.

That estimate has been computed using the measurement tool within the NASA Worldview application.

Credit: NASA Worldview.

Predictive meterologist for the National Interagency Fire Center, Nick Nausler, tweeted: “Multiple fires made 20-plus mile runs in 24 hours over the last few days in California, Oregon and Washington.

However, most of these fires are making massive runs in timber and burning tens of thousands of acres and in some cases 100,000-plus acres in one day.

Image Courtesy: NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS).

September 9, 2020