March 31, 2023

California’s Caldor Fire seen from space in harrowing satellite images (gallery)

California’s Caldor Fire seen from space in harrowing satellite images (gallery)
California’s Caldor Fire seen from space in harrowing satellite images (gallery)California’s Caldor Fire seen from space in harrowing satellite images (gallery)

(Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview,VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, and Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.)

Caldor Fire nears Lake Tahoe

The Caldor Fire, one of the largest in California’s history, has been blazing in El Dorado County since Aug. 14, 2021. 

It has since burned more than 200,000 acres of land and is now progressing toward the border of Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. See satellite images of the growing fire in this Space.com gallery. 

The image above, captured Aug. 30 by NASA’s Aqua satellite, shows smoke from the Caldor Fire encroaching on the southern portion of Lake Tahoe. 

Related: Record temperatures, fire clouds and drought ravage Earth in 2021