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Ballinger Fire, August 2017 Idaho

Out · last measured on 14 Aug 2017

The fire started on 14 August 2017 in Idaho, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 915 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 240th largest in Idaho since 2016 (of 379 with a page). Number 409 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area
915ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
14 Aug 2017 – 14 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
14 Aug
2017
Heat detections
250
in a single hotspot: 64 MW
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug14 Aug

The weather it burned in

32°high
50km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 14 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Idaho where it started
    910 ha reached on 18 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
14 Aug 19.3 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm Low 9
15 Aug after 23.3 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Aug after 23.8 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Aug after 24.3 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Aug after 26.5 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug after 21.1 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Aug after 21.4 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Aug after 26.0 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Aug after 28.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Aug after 27.1 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Aug after 24.1 °C 26 % 50 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 18
25 Aug after 23.5 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Aug after 26.5 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Aug after 29.5 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Aug after 27.4 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
29 Aug after 31.9 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
30 Aug after 29.0 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 39
31 Aug after 23.7 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept after 26.8 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept after 31.1 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Sept after 31.2 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Sept after 28.6 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept after 27.3 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept after 28.3 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Sept after 29.8 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Sept after 25.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 38
9 Sept after 25.2 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.7 mm High 27
10 Sept after 21.5 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Sept after 27.6 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Sept after 26.3 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
13 Sept after 20.8 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept after 14.4 °C 23 % 42 km/h 2.0 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 7 Aug 2017
After · 21 Aug 2017

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 · 250Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ballinger fire last?
It burned between 14 August 2017 and 14 August 2017: 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 915 hectares (9.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Idaho (910 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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

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.

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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.