Northern California Fires on Satellite, 2017
This page shows satellite views of the explosive growth (see animations below) of fires in Sonoma and Napa Counties in California due to an extreme case of "Diablo" winds when high pressure builds into the Great Basin, creating hot, dry, downslope/offshore air flow.  These were the most deadly and destructive wildfires in California history.








 
Satellite Animation of Explosive Formation of Sonoma/Napa Fire Hotspots in NearIR

Black and dark grey pixels are GOES Channel 2 (Near IR 3.9 micrometer) fire hotspots.  Pixels are approximately 4+ km across. They first appear in Sonoma and Napa Counties around 4:45 UTC (9:45 pm PDT, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017) then grow rapidly, expanding toward the southwest from the hot, dry, northeasterly "Diablo" winds (the Northern California analog of Santa Ana winds).  The animation ends on Monday, Oct. 9, at 15:00 UTC (8:00 am PDT).

VIS Satellite Animation of Smoke Blowing Offshore
Easterly "Diablo" winds blowing smoke offshore from fires in Sonoma and Napa Counties during the day on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017.  As of this writing (1 week later), 41 people are known to have died in these fires and at least 5700 buildings destroyed.

New GOES-16 Satellite Imagery
The GOES-16 satellite has new channels with different wavelengths that allow for color satellite imagery, along with new algorithms and channels that detect fire hotspots.  The following are links from CIRA (Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University) to GOES-16 animations showing smoke plumes and fire hotspots in never-before-available full color geostationary satellite imagery:

Full color GOES-16 imagery of hotspots and smoke plumes from California wildfires.

Full color GOES-16 imagery of smoke from California fires blowing offshore with northeasterly Diablo winds.