{"id":70493,"date":"2026-05-17T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=70493"},"modified":"2026-05-18T23:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:23:11","slug":"fast-moving-grass-fire-prompts-the-issuance-of-an-evacuation-immediate-order-in-southeast-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/70493","title":{"rendered":"Fast-moving Sharpe Fire prompts the issuance of an Evacuation Immediate order in southeast Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div style=\"width: 3004px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260517_goes19_visibleFireMask_shortwaveInfrared_OK_CO_grass_fire.mp4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260517_2045utc_goes19_visible_shortwaveInfrared.png\" width=\"2994\" height=\"1680\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">1-minute GOES-19 0.64 \u00b5m Visible images with an overlay of the Fire Mask (left) and 3.9 \u00b5m Shortwave Infrared images (right), from 1701 UTC on 17 May to 0100 UTC on 18 May [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>1-minute <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov\/status\/satellite\/\"><strong>Mesoscale Domain Sector<\/strong><\/a> GOES-19 <em>(GOES-East)<\/em> Visible images (with\/without an overlay of the <a href=\"http:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/training\/visit\/training_sessions\/goes_r_fire_surface_properties\/video\/presentation_html5.html?lms=1\"><strong>FDCA<\/strong><\/a> Fire Mask derived product) and Shortwave Infrared images <em><strong>(above)<\/strong><\/em> showed the thermal anomaly associated with a fast-moving grass fire (the <a href=\"https:\/\/app.watchduty.org\/i\/98426\"><strong>Sharpe Fire<\/strong><\/a>) that moved northeastward across the Oklahoma border into Baca County in far southeastern Colorado on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/dailywxmap\/index_20260517.html\"><strong>17 May 2026<\/strong><\/a> &#8212; prompting the issuance of an <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260517_kpub_evacuation_immediate.text\"><strong>Evacuation Immediate<\/strong><\/a> order for southern Baca County residents in the vicinity of Campo at 2045 UTC. RAWS sites upstream of and near the fire recorded southwesterly wind gusts as high as 45-47 mph.<\/p>\n<p>This grass fire burned very hot, and at 2017 UTC it first exhibited a 3.9 \u00b5m shortwave infrared brightness temperature of 137.77\u00baC <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> &#8212; which is the saturation temperature of GOES-19 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goes-r.gov\/spacesegment\/abi.html\"><strong>ABI<\/strong><\/a> Band 7 detectors.<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 3004px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260517_2017utc_goes19_visibleFireMask_shortwaveInfrared_cursor_sample.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260517_2017utc_goes19_visibleFireMask_shortwaveInfrared_cursor_sample.png\" width=\"2994\" height=\"1680\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOES-19 0.64 \u00b5m Visible + Fire Mask image (left) and 3.9 \u00b5m Shortwave Infrared image (right) at 2017 UTC on 17 May, with a cursor sample of the saturated Shortwave Infrared brightness temperature [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>1-minute GOES-19 GeoColor RGB images with <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/ngfs\/\"><strong>Next Generation Fire System<\/strong><\/a> (NGFS) Fire Detection polygons <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> also showed the rapid northeastward spread of the wind-driven fire&#8217;s thermal signature. The surface observation site near Campo, Colorado recorded relative humidity (green) values as low as 4%, and southwesterly wind gusts (red) as high as 45 mph. Note how the wind direction at area observation sites fluctuated from a more northerly-northeasterly direction early in the day to southwesterly later in the day, as a segment of a quasi-stationary frontal boundary briefly surged northward (<a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260517_surface_analyses_anim.gif\"><strong>surface analyses<\/strong><\/a>).<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 3034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260517_goes19_geoColorRGB_ngfsFireDetections_OK_CO.mp4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260517_2303utc_g19_rgb_ngfs.png\" width=\"3024\" height=\"1790\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">1-minute GOES-19 GeoColor RGB images with an overlay of NGFS Fire Detection polygons and Surface Observations, from 1600 UTC on 17 May to 0100 UTC on 18 May [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Visible images (with\/without an overlay of the FDCA Fire Mask derived product) and Shortwave Infrared images (above) showed the thermal anomaly associated with a fast-moving grass fire (the Sharpe Fire) that moved northeastward across the Oklahoma border into Baca County in far southeastern Colorado on 17 May 2026 &#8212; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":70494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,159,158,53,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fire-detection","category-goes-19","category-ngfs","category-real-earth","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70493"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70525,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70493\/revisions\/70525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}