Largest California Wildfires since the Thomas Fire
2018 Paradise
Camp Fire
Satellite view of the wildfires in Paradise, California. Image furnished by NASA.
This fire was caused by a trifecta of extreme fire conditions - heat, wind and severe drought - this was the deadliest fire in California’s history, claiming 86 lives.
2020 Bay Area
Lightning Complex Fires
Satellite view of the burn scars in the Bay Area. Image furnished by NASA.
A complex fire is when two or more fires ignite in the same general area. In this case, three complex fires (Lake Napa Unit, Santa Clara Unit, and San Mateo/Santa Cruz Unit) were started by 10,849 lightning strikes in the span of three days.
2020 Mendocino National Forest
August Complex Gigafire
Satellite views of the August Complex fires. Image furnished by NASA.
What started as 38 lightning strikes from the same August 16th storm quickly became California’s first known gigafire burning more than one million acres of land. For perspective, that is about the size of Rhode Island.
