Wildfire Scorches Eastern Oregon

During record-breaking heat, multiple wildland fires raged across Oregon in mid-July 2024. The Cow Valley fire, the largest in the state, had burned over 132,000 acres (526 square kilometers) as of July 15.

The fire ignited on the morning of July 11 in an area of open rangeland near Brogan, a small town in eastern Oregon. Blistering heat, low humidity, and high winds allowed the fire to spread quickly to the south. Smoke billowed from the fire as it burned through dry grasses and shrubs.

The images above show the growth of the burned area (darker surfaces) between July 12 (left) and July 13 (right). On the evening of July 12, the fast-moving blaze had burned over 80,000 acres, according to officials. By the morning of July 13, it had burned over 114,000 acres. The images were captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) aboard the Landsat 8 satellite and the OLI-2 on Landsat 9, respectively.

Read more at NASA Earth Observatory

Image: NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.