Floriston Fire near the California/Nevada border
5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Visible images with an overlay of the Fire Mask derived product (above) showed the evolution of the Floriston Fire thermal signature (red pixels) as the vegetation fire grew near the California/Nevada border on 16 September 2026. Evacuation Orders were issued for areas near the fire — and Interstate 80 in the vicinity of Verdi, Nevada was closed to westbound traffic.
5-minute GOES-18 GeoColor RGB images with an overlay of Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) Fire Detection polygons (below) provided a closer view of the thermal signature, smoke plume and occasional bursts of pyrocumulus clouds produced by the Floriston Fire (the initial NGFS detection occurred at 1716 UTC). Wind gusts (red numbers in the lower right corner of the Surface Observation plots) in the vicinity of the fire were as high as 28 mph.
Even though the satellite viewing angle was larger for GOES-19 (GOES-East), that GeoColor RGB image + NGFS Fire Detection polygon perspective is shown below. Due to this larger viewing angle (64.44 degrees for GOES-19, vs. 48.95 degrees for GOES-18), the GOES-19 NGFS polygons appeared larger and somewhat distorted.
A toggle between 1846 UTC NGFS Fire Detection polygons from GOES-18 vs. GOES-19 projected onto a terrain map (below) highlighted the larger GOES-19 NGFS polygons. Note that the central red (hottest) NGFS polygon was centered along the eastern slope of the Verdi Range — perhaps giving GOES-19 a somewhat more direct view of the Floriston Fire.
This terrain apparently played a role in the magnitude of NGFS parameters sensed by the 2 satellites at 1846 UTC (below) — in spite of the larger viewing angle of GOES-19, it detected a peak 3.9 µm infrared brightness temperature of 131ºC (vs. 110ºC from GOES-18) and a corresponding Pixel FRP (Fire Radiative Power) of 2921.11 MW (vs. 1005.91 MW from GOES-18).
During the subsequent nighttime hours, the bright glow of the Floriston Fire was evident in a NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band image at 1027 UTC (3:27 AM PDT) on 17 September (below).
