August Complex, August 2020 Trinity, Tehama, Mendocino
The fire started on 17 August 2020 in Trinity, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 432,192 hectares, spread across 6 counties.
It is the largest fire in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). The largest in United States in 2020, of 441.
- Burnt area
- 432,192ha
- official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
- Duration
- 1day
- 17 Aug 2020 – 17 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 6
- counties
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 65,087
- in a single hotspot: 1,424 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,814 ha in 2017, 177 ha in 2018, 2,611 ha in 2019.
- 2,290 ha South fire, September 2019 2,283 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,318 ha Willie fire, August 2017 1,312 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 847 ha Buck fire, September 2017 5,504 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 649 ha Dutchman fire, August 2017 647 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 307 ha Red Bank fire, September 2019 3,308 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 117 ha Chrome fire, June 2018 953 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 60 ha Ranch fire, July 2018 192,471 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14 ha Ranch fire, November 2019 1,185 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
158,691 ha reached on 18 Aug19 %
-
97,809 ha reached on 19 Aug13 %
-
Mendocino where it started81,048 ha reached on 19 Aug8.9 %
-
75,988 ha reached on 17 Aug22 %
-
18,210 ha reached on 19 Aug5.3 %
-
520 ha reached on 28 Sept0.0 %
Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug | 28.8 °C | 21 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Aug | 28.3 °C | 13 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Aug | 29.4 °C | 10 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Aug | 30.6 °C | 18 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Aug | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Aug | 29.9 °C | 24 % | 89 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 33 |
| 17 Aug | 29.6 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 14 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 10 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 17 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 31 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Aug after | 29.7 °C | 17 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 13 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 22 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Aug after | 27.7 °C | 23 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 22 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 16 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Aug after | 30.7 °C | 17 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 13 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 14 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 12 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Sept after | 31.5 °C | 15 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 16 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 65,087Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,504 haBuck TrinitySeptember 2017 · 1 day · 23 km away
- 2,283 haSouth TehamaSeptember 2019 · 1 day · 23 km away
- 1,312 haWillie TrinityAugust 2017 · 1 day · 25 km away
- 49,160 haMcfarland TehamaJuly 2021 · 1 day · 32 km away
- 647 haDutchman TrinityAugust 2017 · 1 day · 33 km away
- 3,308 haRed Bank TehamaSeptember 2019 · 1 day · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the August Complex fire last?
- It burned between 17 August 2020 and 17 August 2020: 1 day, according to the start date recorded by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) and the heat detections seen by satellite.
- How much area did it burn?
- The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 432,192 hectares (4,321.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
- Which counties burned?
- The fire entered 6 counties: Trinity (158,691 ha, 19 %); Tehama (97,809 ha, 13 %); Mendocino (81,048 ha, 8.9 %); Glenn (75,988 ha, 22 %); Lake (18,210 ha, 5.3 %); Shasta (520 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 89 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the official burnt perimeter of United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC, public domain), NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United States. It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 911
- NIFC · National Interagency Fire Center ↗
- InciWeb · Incident Information System ↗
- MTBS · Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity ↗
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter is official and in the public domain. For past years it comes from MTBS (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), run by the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service, which map it on Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery. For the current and last year it comes from WFIGS at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): incident perimeters mapped by fire crews, aircraft and imagery. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. County boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per county is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.