Burning Man just wrapped up, with more than 70,000 revelers traveled to the Black Rock Desert for a week long celebration of art and “radical self-expression.” The massive festival being held in such a remote location caused something interesting to trigger an alert on a satellite used for detecting wildfires.
GOES-16 satellite is not only showing several wildfires burning in northern CA and southern OR, but also was able to pick up on Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert tonight from ~22,500 mi away! These fires are the faint red areas showing up near where the arrows are pointing. pic.twitter.com/nLBFx6XmEz
— NWS Reno (@NWSReno) September 2, 2018
National Weather Service Reno had posted on their Twitter that the GOES-16 satellite used to prevent and detect wildfires had been in the middle of tracking a few wildfires that had been burning in northern CA and southern OR when all of a sudden it picked up the activity happening at Burning Man.
Due to the area where the event is being held normally being dark with no activity, the satellite had been able to pick up the unusual activity and send the alert to the satellite.
It’s not everyday you hear a festival causing a satellite to send a prevention alert. With Burning Man practically in the books this year, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date with anymore interesting news that pop up about this years festivities.
