1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) GeoColor RGB images (above) showed the dense smoke plume associated with the Aspen Acres Fire in southeastern Colorado on 29 June 2026. As the smoke plume drifted northeast across the Pueblo Airport, it restricted the surface visibility to 2 miles at times.

1-minute GOES-18 GeoColor RGB images with plots of surface observations (below) depicted wind gusts of 49-51 mph near the source of the wildfire early in the day. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for several communities in the vicinity of this fast-moving fire.

1-minute GOES-18 GeoColor RGB images with an overlay of Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) Fire Detection polygons (below) displayed the wildfire’s large and very hot thermal signature.

The thermal signature of the Aspen Acres Fire was also very apparent in GOES-18 Day Land Cloud Fire RGB images (below).

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5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Infrared Window images (above) included plots of SPC Storm Reports — which showed severe thunderstorms that grew into a Mesoscale Convective System which produced wind gusts as high as 131 mph, hail as large as 2.75 inches in diameter and a few tornadoes from northwestern Nebraska to northeastern South Dakota during the overnight hours leading up to sunrise on 29 June 2026. More details about this event are available from NWS Aberdeen.

The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were -80 C (violet pixels) — which represented a significant ~3 km overshoot of the Most Unstable (MU) air parcel’s Equilibrium Level (EL), according to a plot of rawinsonde data from Aberdeen, South Dakota (below).

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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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