{"id":22720,"date":"2016-11-29T15:46:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T15:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=22720"},"modified":"2016-12-02T21:42:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T21:42:48","slug":"gatlinburg-tennessee-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/22720","title":{"rendered":"Gatlinburg, Tennessee wildfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m) images, with METAR surface reports [click to play animation]<\/p><\/div>Wildfires had been burning in the Great Smoky Mountains for a few weeks (see previous blog posts<\/strong><\/a>) as extreme to exceptional drought<\/strong><\/a> persisted over the region. However, on 28 November 2016<\/strong><\/a> weather conditions became conducive to extreme fire behavior — and this allowed the Chimney Tops 2 Fire<\/strong><\/a> south of Gatlinburg, Tennessee to race rapidly northward (fire perimeter map<\/strong><\/a>), driven by strong southerly winds gusting to at least 30-40 knots (as were recorded in Knoxville KTYS<\/strong><\/a>, located about 25 miles northwest of Gatlinburg). Widespread evacuations were necessary, and at least 13 fatalities were reported.\u00a0 4-km resolution GOES-13 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m) images (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed the development of a fire “hot spot” (the cluster of pixels at the center of the images exhibiting a black to yellow color enhancement)<\/em> during the day, before clouds moved overhead to mask the fire hot spot signature. The warmest infrared brightness temperature seen during this time period was 326.8 K (brighter yellow pixels)<\/em> on the 1700 UTC<\/strong><\/a> image.<\/p>\n

Even though cloud cover was increasing, a detailed view of the fire hot spot was provided by an AWIPS II image of 375-meter resolution Suomi NPP VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 \u00b5m) data at 1815 UTC on 28 November (below)<\/strong><\/em>. An AWIPS I version of this image is available here<\/strong><\/a>. Due to the cloudiness, no discernible hot spot appeared on the lower-resolution 1815 UTC<\/strong><\/a> GOES-13 Shortwave Infrared image.<\/p>\n

\"Suomi<\/a>

Suomi NPP VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 \u00b5m) image [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>Props to NWS meteorologist Carl Jones for spotting this somewhat unexpected result: the glow of the fire was evident on the following nighttime Suomi NPP VIIRS Day\/Night Band (0.7 \u00b5m) image, even though there was a thick layer of clouds over the fire itself:<\/p>\n

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#Gatlinburg<\/a> fire shines brightly despite clouds on VIIRS DNB overnight pass. @TravelGburg<\/a> @NASANPP<\/a> @CIMSS_Satellite<\/a> @UWSSEC<\/a> @UWCIMSS<\/a> #tnwx<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/8CiIdL8Rrg<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Carl Jones (@northflwx) November 29, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n