Exacerbated by high temperatures and strong winds, fire conditions reached dangerous levels on February 8–9, 2014, in the Australian state of Victoria. Several large bushfires burned in and around Snowy River National Park, producing dense clouds of smoke. The largest of the fires, Yalmy, had burned 79,893 hectares as of February 10, while the nearby Bonang fire burned 11,952 hectares, and Club Terrace, 7,843 hectares. Other smaller fires also burned in the region. Lightning ignited the fires.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired these images on February 9 and 10, 2014. The fires are outlined in red in the top image from February 9. By February 10 (center), the smoke was too dense to see the fires from space.

The lower image offers a broad view of the smoke on February 10. Two distinct plumes are visible over the Tasman Sea.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE). Caption by Holli Riebeek.