Google has recently added some imagery relating to wildfires in the south eastern United States.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
The Great Smoky Mountain wildfires of late November, 2016 was a group of wildfires that affected a number of towns near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee. According to Wikipedia, the fires have claimed at least 14 lives, injured 134, and are one the largest natural disasters in the history of Tennessee. There is a DigitalGlobe false colour image mostly covering the town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, but we can also see the outskirts of Pigeon Forge, which was affected by the fire as well.
Some burnt houses in Gatlinburg, Tennessee
The outskirts of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, showing houses destroyed by the fires.
North Carolina wildfires
Nearby, in North Carolina, there were also a number of wildfires in November. There is a DigitalGlobe image showing two fires burning near Lake Lure, North Carolina.
According to this article about 1000 people were ordered to evacuate Chimney Rock – a small town near the centre of the above image.
Find the above locations in Google Earth with this KML file
. We have also marked the extent of the imagery and the extent of the Gatlinburg fire (as seen in the imagery).
About Timothy Whitehead
Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.