The extreme heat and dry conditions across the U.S. haven’t done anything to help firefighters quell the wildfires raging across Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana this week; they were so out of control at one point, they could be seen from space.

NASA’s Terra satellite happened to cruise over the western part of the country recently and captured images of the fires’ great plumes of grey smoke, which may not look all that impressive from such a distance; however, the fact that they can be seen from space at all is a wonder.

(image)

According to NASA:

The Ash Creek Complex Fire is located in the Custer National Forest in eastern Montana . As of July 2, it had burned 170,000 acres and was 40 percent contained. In Wyoming the Fontenelle Fire and Arapho Fires are evident on the NASA imagery. The smoke from the Fontenelle Fire was blowing in a north-northeasterly direction on the satellite image. This fire has consumed 47,478 acres and according to the U.S. Forest Service it located in Lincoln and Sublette County, Wyoming. The Arapaho Fire has consumed 75,051 acres and is only 5 percent contained, according to inciweb.org.

Though the fires continue to sweep their devastation across the western states, it’s recently been reported that they are slowly coming under control. However, fire crews will likely have a long and difficult wildfire season ahead of them if the dry heat continues as it has.