Check Out Astronaut’s Epic Photo of Wildfires from Space

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This “firenado,” or fire tornado, from the Soda Fire near Boise, Idaho shows just how extreme the conditions are there:

Saw a #firewhirl for the first time last night. This sucker was shooting flames 100 ft in the air before it passed right in front of the line, all while dropping hot dirt and ash on our helmets. #boise #sodafire #extremefirebehavior #megafire #wildlandfirefighting

A video posted by Craig Fluer (@craigfluer) on Aug 14, 2015 at 6:53pm PDT

“In California alone, more than 11,000 firefighters were mobilized, with the U.S. Forest Service spending more than $100 million each week nationwide,” reports TIME. “The agency warns it will have exhausted its annual firefighting budget by the end of the week.”

Five states are dealing with more than 10 large wildfires: California is battling 16, Idaho 21, Montana 14, Oregon 11 and Washington 17. A few weeks ago, we highlighted an interactive wildfire map from Climate Central that shows in real-time just how bad the fire situation is in the West.

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