Fires in Spain and Portugal

Fires in Spain and Portugal

Fires continued to burn across the Iberian Peninsula on July 28, 2004. Along with scorching temperatures, both Portugal (occupies roughly the western quarter of the peninsula) and Spain (occupying the remainder of the peninsula) have been experiencing dangerous wildfires in late July. In Spain, at least two people were killed when their car was engulfed by a fast moving fire. In northern Portugal (top left) numerous fires (marked in red) were detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite when it passed over on July 28. To the southeast of Lisbon, a large fire is burning the Algarve tourist region along Portugal’s southern coast. Across the border in Spain, a large fire is burning in the Sierra Morena.

Image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center