Wildfires break out in Southern Florida

It is the end of March and wildfires are already breaking out in the South. In this image taken by the Aqua satellite on March 23, three distinct areas of fire activity can be seen. Smoke billows from the fire sites. The National Interagency Fire Center works in concert with the National Interagency Coordination Center and the Southern Area Coordination Center (SACC) in detecting and reporting fire outbreaks. The SACC lists the three fires highlighted on the Aqua satellite image as the Flagland, the 116th Ave SE, and the W. Boundary Rd. fires.

All three fires started on March 21, 2018 during a lightning storm. Two of the fires have definitely been attributed to lightning activity, however, the cause of the Flagland fire is listed as unknown. The Flagland is 100 percent contained and 2,600 acres were affected. The 116th Ave SE fire is only 50 percent contained and 2,700 acres have been affected so far. The W. Boundary Rd fire is 52 percent contained with 2,200 acres affected to date.

NASA's Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on March 23, 2018. Actively burning areas (hot spots), 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.