A drought in Central Chile is the cause of a record number of forest fires this past year.
A drought in Central Chile is the cause of a record number of forest fires this past year which has caused massive problems within the forestry industry in the country. The fires have also forced evacuations near the affected areas. Gusty winds and high temperatures have also contributed to the spread of fires.
This natural-color satellite image of Central Chile was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on January 18, 2017. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner