image: The Rocky Mountain portion of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia is experiencing an early fire season wildfire. The satellite image was taken by the Aqua satellite on April 20, 2016. The fire began on April 16, 2016 and has spread to 5,616 acres at present. It is currently 1 percent contained with active creeping wind driven fire runs occurring. Weather concerns are that the area is experiencing continued hot and dry conditions. Another frontal passage will bring limited rainfall with dry and windy conditions to follow which will contribute to extreme fire danger. The cause of the fire is being investigated but it most likely human in nature according to Inciweb.
NASA's Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on April 20, 2016. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red.
Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from Inciweb.