1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) GeoColor RGB images with/without an overlay of Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) Fire Detection polygons (above) highlighted the rapid growth of the Snyder Fire as it merged with other wildfires in far western Colorado during the day on 27 June 2026. Firefighters working the Knowles and Gore fires in far western Colorado were involved in a burnover incident, which tragically resulted in 3 deaths and 2 serious injuries.

The resulting wildfire complex burned very hot, first exhibiting the 137.88ºC saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) detectors at 1917 UTC (below).

The rapid growth of the thermal signature of this wind-driven wildfire complex was also very apparent in 1-minute GOES-18 Day Land Cloud Fire RGB imagery (below) — a surface observation site just northwest of the fire showed that southwest winds were gusting to 50 mph at 1725 UTC, and gusting to 57 mph at 2145 UTC.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Infrared Window images combined with the FDCA Fire Mask derived product (above) showed that the Cottonwood Fire in southwestern Utah produced a sequence of pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds beginning late in the day on 23 June 2026. These pyroCbs eventually drifted eastward across the Utah/Colorado border.

Each pyroCb exhibited cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures in the -40s C (shades of blue to cyan) — which is a necessary trait to be classified as a pyrocumulonimbus (since those temperatures assure that heterogeneous glaciation has occurred at the cloud top). With one of the final pyroCb clouds in the series, GLM Flash Points depicted a brief period of intermittent satellite-detected lightning activity (from 0613 UTC to 0629 UTC on 24 June).

1-minute GOES-18 Infrared Window + Fire Mask images that included plots of METAR surface reports (below) indicated that smoke from the Cottonwood Fire reduced the visibility to 3 miles at Hanksville, Utah (KHVE), Moab, Utah (KCNY, located midway between KHVE and KGJT) and even as far downstream as Grand Junction, Colorado (KGJT).

1-minute GOES-18 GeoColor RGB images with/without an overlay of Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) Fire Detection polygons (below) displayed the dense smoke plume that was emanating from the growing thermal signature of the Cottonwood Fire. This wildfire burned very hot, first exhibiting the 137.88ºC saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) detectors at 1719 UTC and maintaining that saturation infrared brightness temperature for the remainder of the time period shown below. The southeastern portion of Beaver County (where the Cottonwood Fire began) was experiencing Severe Drought conditions, which played a role in the rapid fire growth.

As of 24 June, the Cottonwood Fire became the most destructive on record for the state of Utah, with more than 100 properties damaged or destroyed.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) True Color RGB images (above) showed the development of pyrocumulus clouds and and a dense smoke plume associated with the Iron Fire in northern Utah (south of Salt Lake City) on 20 June 2026. At the beginning of the animation, a widespread veil of low-altitude smoke from the previous day of burning blanketed the area.

1-minute GOES-18 GeoColor RGB images with an overlay of Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) Fire Detection polygons (below) highlighted the growth of the Iron Fire during the day — and it eventually forced evacuations for parts of Eureka, Utah. The Iron Fire burned very hot, first reaching the 137.88ºC saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) detectors at 1705 UTC.

Farther to the north over Interior Alaska, 1-minute GOES-18 Fire Temperature RGB images with NGFS polygons (below) displayed the thermal signature of the Starry Fire — which forced an evacuation of the Anderson area on the evening of 20 June (local time). Early fire detection using GOES-18 was a challenge in this case, due to the presence of widespread dense convective clouds.

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A multi-panel display of 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) ABI images (above) showed either a reflectance signature or a thermal signature of sunlight reflecting off the Topaz Solar Farms on 18 June 2026. A signature was evident in 13 of the 16 ABI spectral bands (no signature was evident in Water Vapor bands 08/09/10) — and due to a relatively dry atmosphere (Vandenberg CA rawinsondes), there was even a subtle signature in the near-infrared 1.38 µm “Cirrus” band 04 (1838 UTC images).

A closer view of the band 07 Shortwave Infrared imagery (below) displayed the large thermal signature — in fact, the 3.9 µm infrared brightness temperature peaked at 137.88ºC (which is the saturation temperature of GOES-18 band 07 detectors) from 1833 UTC to 1842 UTC. In the far eastern portion of the images, the thermal signature of a small wildfire was also apparent.

A closer view of band 02 Red Visible imagery (below) revealed the appearance of vertical striping that emanated northward and southward from the Topaz solar farms. These image artifacts were likely related to saturated ABI detector column amplifiers, due to an excess charge induced by intense sunlight reflection off the large solar panel arrays.

A larger-scale view of the Visible image at 1837 UTC (below) showed that these striping artifacts extended a considerable distance from the Topaz site.

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