A heat wave bringing critical and extreme fire weather is arriving as California and Oregon wildfires continue to rage

Satellite view of California and Oregon on July 23, 2018. Smoke from the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite National Park is visible in the lower right quadrant. Another sprawling smoke pall can be seen in southern Oregon at upper left. (Click to open the image and then click again to zoom in. Source: NASA Worldview) You may have heard about California's Ferguson Fire, which has killed one firefighter and is threatening to spread into Yosemite National Park. But a series of other fires, sparked by lighting to the north, are also raging. And now, thousands of firefighters struggling to contain the blazes must contend with a heat wave descending on the region. In the image above, acquired today (Monday, July 23) by NASA's Terra satellite, look for a thick pall of smoke in the lower right quadrant. This is the Ferguson Fire. Another sprawling area of smoke is seen in the upper left quadrant. This is from the fires in southern Oregon. The smoke can be distinguished from wispy white clouds by it's grayish and, in some places, bluish cast. Here's a closer view of the Oregon fires: