Picture Post: U.S. wildfires burn bright, even from space
Picture Post: U.S. wildfires burn bright, even from space
07 June 2012
published by www.news.nationalpost.com
USA — This amazing picture taken from the International Space Station shows how even great calamities can seem serene when observed from far away. The view is of the wildfires thats the smoke and dimmer lights right of center of the image burning next to the bright lights of El Paso, Texas the brightly lit area just under the tail of the Russian spacecraft docked to the Station at left.
See more Picture Posts Follow NP Photos on Twitter
Eastern Arizona, western New Mexico, western Colorado and eastern Utah have above-normal risks of significant wildfire this summer, while no part of Texas is listed in that category, according to the National Inter-agency Fire Center.
As of Monday, firefighters were battling 11 large, uncontained blazes, mostly in seven Western states New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Idaho.
The year-to-date tally of burned acreage across the country is running about 40 percent below average for the same six-month period over the past decade, said Ken Frederick, a spokesman for the Fire Center.
By this time last year in Texas, massive wildfires had burned hundreds of thousands of acres and, by years end, 4 million acres were lost in the state. So far in 2012, just 46,000 acres have burned in the Lone Star State.
With files from Reuters
