This is what devastating California fires look like in satellite images

The fires in California, in the western United States, have caused a true tragedy. By the end of August, more than 42,000 fires had destroyed nearly 7,000 square kilometers, more than double the average area consumed up to this time of year. (Read In less than 30 years, Colombia could be a cemetery of glaciers)

The images that have circulated on social networks have been terrifying. The droughts that this State has experienced have allowed the flames to grow and reach places that they had not reached before. Lake Tahoe, the paradise of California’s elite, was one of those places that were at risk. (We recommend: Colombia will have an Accidental Water Commission. Why is it a very important step?)

But if the photographs of firefighters fighting the fire were disturbing, those captured by NASA’s Earth Observatory allow us to measure the magnitude of this phenomenon. A couple of days ago, on their website, they published images that also reveal how the smoke spread throughout much of the country.

For example, the first image that accompanies this text shows how the Caldor and Dixie fires spread to places that had not previously reached the flames, forcing thousands of people to evacuate. In Lake Tahoe, 22 thousand inhabitants had to leave their homes.

The eight largest fires in California history have occurred in the past four years, an indication that the climate crisis has dramatically increased the risk of major fires in this state.

The fire season in California usually occurs between September and November, but recent trends suggest that disasters of this type can also occur in the months before and after, due to the low rainfall and increasingly high temperatures that have been recorded. in recent years.