Croatian island fires causing summer havoc

Firefighters in Croatia have been on high alert during this current fire season. Raging wildfires off the coast on the islands of Korcula and Brac as well as two major fires on the Peljesac Peninsula have wreaked havoc on Croatia's tourist season. The Peljesac Peninsula fires forced evacuations and destroyed olive groves, vineyards and pine forests. Errant fires have also cut off main roads and power supplies at times since they first erupted earlier this week. Efforts by firefighters to contain the blazes have been severely hampered by hot winds and high temperatures.

NASA's Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on July 21, 2015. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. Each hot spot is an area where the thermal detectors on the MODIS instrument recognized temperatures higher than background. When accompanied by plumes of smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for fire. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner.