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Morrill Fire burns over 548000 acres in the Nebraska Panhandle

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute GOES-19 GeoColor RGB images with an overlay of NGFS Fire Detection polygons (with/without County outlines + surface observations) from 1930 UTC on 12 March to 0500 UTC on 13 March [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 GeoColor RGB images with an overlay of Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) Fire Detection polygons (above) displayed the thermal signatures smoke plume associated with the Morrill Fire in the Nebraska Panhandle on 12 March 2026. Surface observations in the vicinity of the fire depicted wind gusts exceeding 60 mph at times (for example, north and southwest of the fire at 2141 UTC). These strong winds helped the fire to initially make a rapid run of about 65 miles in 6 hours.

On the following day, a toggle between NOAA-21 VIIRS True Color RGB and Day Fire RGB images (below) showed the size of the Morrill Fire burn scar at 1931 UTC, with some fires still active along the periphery.

NOAA-21 VIIRS True Color RGB and Day Fire RGB images at 1931 UTC on 13 March [click to enlarge]

Categories: Fire detection, GOES-19, NGFS, NOAA-21, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, VIIRS