Watch three decades of urban sprawl in Fresno and Clovis, squeezed into a few seconds

More than three decades of northward sprawl in Fresno and Clovis look dramatic when the changes are squeezed into seconds.

That’s what we see thanks to one of Google Earth’s more recent toys – Timelapse, which zips through years of satellite mapping, from 1984 to 2016. During, this period, the combined population of Fresno and Clovis more than doubles, from about 305,000 to over 628,000.

We zoomed in on northeast Fresno and Clovis, an area that experienced explosive growth during this period. It’s amazing to watch great swaths of green and brown transform into countless gray boxes.

This story was originally published August 17, 2017 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Watch three decades of urban sprawl in Fresno and Clovis, squeezed into a few seconds."