April 3, 2023 - Smoky Fires in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains

Wildfires
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In late March 2023, smoke-filled fires were burning across the
Southeastern United States, especially in western North Carolina. The
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s
Terra satellite acquired a true-color image centered on the border of
Tennessee (west) and North Carolina (east) on March 30. At least 5
fires, each marked with a red “hot spot” can be seen in the Smoky
Mountains of western North Carolina along with one in the Piedmont
region further east in that state. In addition, 3 fires are burning in
Tennessee, two in South Carolina (south of North Carolina) and one in
Virginia, and a large fire with abundant smoke can be seen in Kentucky.

Springtime is the start of fire season in the Southeastern United
States, as vegetation tends to be dry, temperatures on the rise,
humidity still low, and spring showers often are accompanied by strong,
gusty winds. It is also the time when fires are set to manage land,
either for agriculture (croplands and pasture) or wildland (forest,
wildlife habitat) management. The fires in this image are likely a mix
of wildfire and managed fires.

According to Inciweb, there were no large active fires in this region
on March 30. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) Incident
Management Situation Report for March 31 lists only two large fires in
North Carolina, and both of those were in the Coastal region of the
state. On the other hand, the U.S. Forest Service announced prescribed
burns in the Pisgah National Forest from March 29-30. The Pisgah
National Forest extends over more than 500,000 acres of hardwood forest
in the mountains of western North Carolina. Several of the hot spots
seen in the image appear to be part of this prescribed burn. The large
fire in Kentucky is undoubtedly a prescribed burn which was occurring
in Daniel Boone National Forest in late March.

Widespread brush fires have also been reported in this region,
especially in western North Carolina after a strong storm system
brought roaring winds and hazardous weather on March 31-April 1. Local
news reported that the North Carolina Forest Service responded to 91
wildfires across North Carolina on April 1 as high winds led to many
downed or damaged powerlines, which provided ignition sources for
several of the fires.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 3/30/2023
Resolutions: 1km (53.1 KB), 500m (179.9 KB), 250m (566.4
KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-04-03

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