Satellite before and after

Camp Fire 2018: Paradise, California

The Camp Fire of November 2018 was the deadliest and most destructive in California's history, and destroyed the town of Paradise.

Paradise and the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Chico, California, United States · November 2018 · Wildfire · United States

Compare the imagery

Drag the divider, or focus it and use the arrow keys. Left of the divider is 6 Nov 2018, right is 25 Nov 2018, 19 days apart.

The interactive comparison needs JavaScript. Both images are shown below.

In this false-colour view water is dark blue to black, vegetation is bright green, bare ground is tan, freshly burned land is red-brown and cloud is cyan.

The two images

Satellite image of Paradise and the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Chico, California, United States on 6 Nov 2018, before the event, in false colour (MODIS bands 7-2-1).
Before: Terra, 6 Nov 2018 · Open in NASA Worldview · original from GIBS
Satellite image of Paradise and the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Chico, California, United States on 25 Nov 2018, after the event, in false colour (MODIS bands 7-2-1).
After: Terra, 25 Nov 2018 · Open in NASA Worldview · original from GIBS

What the images show

On 6 November the foothills east of the Sacramento Valley are green. On 25 November a large red-brown burn scar covers the foothills where Paradise stands.

About the event

  • NASA Earth Observatory reported that the fire burned more than 153,000 acres, destroyed more than 18,000 structures and caused at least 85 deaths before it was fully contained.
  • It published a MODIS image of the burn scar from the same day as this after-image, 25 November 2018.

Limits of this comparison

Both images are from the same satellite and layer. Snow on high ground shows cyan in the north-east of the 25 November image. Streets and burned buildings are far too small to see at 250 metres.

Each image is one satellite pass at about 250 metres a pixel. It shows where water or burned land is visible from space on that day; it does not measure damage, and cloud or haze can hide what is underneath.

Dates were chosen by checking the imagery on both satellites for several days either side and keeping the clearest pass. Both use the same layer, MODIS Corrected Reflectance, bands 7-2-1.

Sources

We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Comparison slider: leaflet-side-by-side (MIT licence). Case last updated 13 Sep 2026.

Questions

What does the satellite image of Paradise and the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Chico, California, United States show?

On 6 November the foothills east of the Sacramento Valley are green. On 25 November a large red-brown burn scar covers the foothills where Paradise stands.

When were the two satellite images taken?

The before-image was taken by Terra, 6 Nov 2018 and the after-image by Terra, 25 Nov 2018, 19 days apart.

What can this before-and-after comparison not show?

Both images are from the same satellite and layer. Snow on high ground shows cyan in the north-east of the 25 November image. Streets and burned buildings are far too small to see at 250 metres. Each image is one satellite pass at about 250 metres a pixel. It shows where water or burned land is visible from space on that day; it does not measure damage, and cloud or haze can hide what is underneath.

Related