Images from space show how California's wildfires have torn across the state

A satellite photo taken with infrared technology shows the LNU Lightning Complex Fire as it burns near Healdsburg, California, on August 20, 2020.Satellite image © 2020 Maxar Technologies

• More than 20 major fires are burning in California — an "unprecedented number," according to officials.
• The three biggest blazes have engulfed nearly 500,000 acres.
• Images taken from space show the fires' rapid spread as well as the dry conditions making them stronger.

After nearly 11,000 bolts of lightning struck California in three days earlier this week, firefighters are battling 20 major fires and hundreds of smaller ones — an "unprecedented number," Christine McMorrow, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told LAist.

The fires have collectively burned 771,000 acres — an area roughly the size of Rhode Island. Five people have died, and the blazes have forced tens of thousands to evacuate.

Of the more than 560 total fires statewide, the largest and fastest-moving are in Northern California. Two of them, the SCU Lightning Complex and the LNU Lightning Complex, have already become the seventh and 10th largest fires in state history respectively. Each have burned an area larger than New York City.

The fires are so large that they're easily seen from space. Satellite images taken Thursday afternoon captured the devastation from above.