Fire season has burned out of control in Nepal - Earth.com

Fire season has burned out of control in Nepal

Fire season has burned out of control in Nepal Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory shows thick wildfire smoke across the mountains of Nepal. 

In this region, fires are intentionally ignited in March and April to manage farmland and pastures. This year, many of the fires spread and burned uncontrollably through forests.

According to NASA, Fire season has burned out of control in Nepal months of unusually dry weather has parched vegetation and turned it into fuel for the fires to spread. 

Between January and April, Nepal received just a quarter of its average rainfall. The fires were accelerated by hot, windy weather. Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a sovereign country in South Asia. It is mainly in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It is the 49th largest country by population and 93rd largest country by area. It is landlocked and borders Tibet in the north and India in the south, east and west, while Bangladesh is located only 27 km (17 mi) from its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the capital and the largest city. Nepal is a multiethnic country, with Nepali as the official language. The name “Nepal” is first recorded in texts from the Vedic period of the Indian subcontinent, the era in ancient Nepal when Hinduism was founded, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BC, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbini in southern Nepal

Poor air quality from the wildfire smoke has forced evacuations, school closures, and caused multiple deaths.

The image was captured on April 5, 2021 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory 

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

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