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Beaver Creek Fire, June 2016 Jackson, Carbon

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2016, 09:17 UTC

The fire started on 19 June 2016 in Jackson, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 97 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 17,886 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 9th largest in Colorado since 2016 (of 167 with a page). Number 15 in United States in 2016, of 475.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ryan · 2018Broadway · 2016Big Red · 2017Mullen · 2020

Burnt area
17,886ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
≈ 97days
19 Jun 2016 – 23 Sept 2016
Counties hit
2
counties
Started on
19 Jun
2016
Heat detections
2,427
in a single hotspot: 465 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
822MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jun23 Sept
23 Sept 2016

How it evolved, day by day

20 Jun 2016 · 353 MW · 25 21 Jun 2016 · 4,982 MW · 67 22 Jun 2016 · 190 MW · 35 23 Jun 2016 · 92 MW · 31 24 Jun 2016 · 460 MW · 18 25 Jun 2016 · 992 MW · 27 26 Jun 2016 · 913 MW · 34 27 Jun 2016 · 1,580 MW · 50 28 Jun 2016 · 1,880 MW · 145 29 Jun 2016 · 195 MW · 62 4 Jul 2016 · 21 MW · 3 6 Jul 2016 · 17 MW · 1 7 Jul 2016 · 95 MW · 8 8 Jul 2016 · 306 MW · 12 9 Jul 2016 · 3,779 MW · 107 10 Jul 2016 · 4,462 MW · 110 11 Jul 2016 · 2,485 MW · 201 12 Jul 2016 · 1,763 MW · 80 13 Jul 2016 · 1,019 MW · 57 14 Jul 2016 · 1,125 MW · 91 15 Jul 2016 · 230 MW · 30 16 Jul 2016 · 518 MW · 34 17 Jul 2016 · 4,325 MW · 69 18 Jul 2016 · 83 MW · 17 20 Jul 2016 · 2 MW · 2 21 Jul 2016 · 5 MW · 2 22 Jul 2016 · 91 MW · 10 23 Jul 2016 · 119 MW · 21 24 Jul 2016 · 86 MW · 7 25 Jul 2016 · 119 MW · 11 26 Jul 2016 · 98 MW · 25 27 Jul 2016 · 2,464 MW · 92 28 Jul 2016 · 3,714 MW · 180 29 Jul 2016 · 417 MW · 52 30 Jul 2016 · 796 MW · 92 31 Jul 2016 · 339 MW · 46 1 Aug 2016 · 13,112 MW · 182 2 Aug 2016 · 340 MW · 51 3 Aug 2016 · 119 MW · 40 4 Aug 2016 · 5 MW · 3 5 Aug 2016 · 20 MW · 1 6 Aug 2016 · 1 MW · 1 7 Aug 2016 · 1 MW · 2 8 Aug 2016 · 2 MW · 1 9 Aug 2016 · 169 MW · 11 10 Aug 2016 · 723 MW · 21 11 Aug 2016 · 3 MW · 1 12 Aug 2016 · 97 MW · 5 13 Aug 2016 · 28 MW · 11 14 Aug 2016 · 722 MW · 47 15 Aug 2016 · 807 MW · 50 16 Aug 2016 · 16 MW · 9 17 Aug 2016 · 4 MW · 4 18 Aug 2016 · 13 MW · 7 20 Aug 2016 · 44 MW · 3 21 Aug 2016 · 726 MW · 16 23 Aug 2016 · 9 MW · 10 27 Aug 2016 · 1 MW · 1 28 Aug 2016 · 18 MW · 4 30 Aug 2016 · 1 MW · 1 1 Sept 2016 · 8 MW · 2 2 Sept 2016 · 13 MW · 2 6 Sept 2016 · 6 MW · 1 7 Sept 2016 · 0 MW · 1 8 Sept 2016 · 81 MW · 8 9 Sept 2016 · 46 MW · 10 10 Sept 2016 · 70 MW · 4 11 Sept 2016 · 1,694 MW · 49 12 Sept 2016 · 116 MW · 7 13 Sept 2016 · 40 MW · 5 14 Sept 2016 · 1 MW · 1 23 Sept 2016 · 1 MW · 1
20 Jun 6 Jul 17 Jul 29 Jul 1 Aug 9 Aug 21 Aug 10 Sept

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

29°high
67km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 24 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 11% of the area of London (179 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each county

  1. Jackson where it started
    16,783 ha reached on 20 Jun
    4.0 %
  2. Carbon
    1,179 ha reached on 11 Jul
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area0.62 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.62 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
19 Jun 25.8 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Jun 26.3 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Jun 29.1 °C 15 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Jun 23.6 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
23 Jun 24.5 °C 26 % 40 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 17
24 Jun 23.6 °C 22 % 55 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
25 Jun 21.4 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Jun 24.7 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jun 26.0 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Jun 27.1 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
29 Jun 25.7 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jun 18.3 °C 44 % 29 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 3
1 Jul 18.8 °C 57 % 39 km/h 7.3 mm Very low 0
2 Jul 18.7 °C 60 % 38 km/h 12.3 mm Very low 0
3 Jul 21.9 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 4
4 Jul 23.0 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
5 Jul 22.7 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
6 Jul 23.5 °C 13 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Jul 21.6 °C 23 % 66 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
8 Jul 24.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
9 Jul 26.0 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Jul 25.9 °C 15 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jul 17.9 °C 14 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Jul 22.6 °C 14 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Jul 23.7 °C 14 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jul 23.5 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jul 22.4 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
16 Jul 25.1 °C 15 % 61 km/h 0.7 mm High 37
17 Jul 26.3 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jul 24.0 °C 25 % 48 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 18
19 Jul 24.5 °C 34 % 42 km/h 1.7 mm Low 10
20 Jul 24.2 °C 30 % 37 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 13
21 Jul 25.1 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Jul 25.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Jul 26.5 °C 25 % 53 km/h 0.8 mm High 29
24 Jul 25.2 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jul 28.0 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jul 24.6 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Jul 27.3 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jul 25.7 °C 18 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Jul 26.0 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Jul 26.1 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Jul 22.7 °C 32 % 42 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 18
1 Aug 26.9 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Aug 26.5 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Aug 26.3 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Aug 18.1 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 19
5 Aug 20.8 °C 44 % 27 km/h 3.2 mm Low 5
6 Aug 20.2 °C 55 % 46 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 5
7 Aug 25.6 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
8 Aug 24.2 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Aug 26.3 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Aug 22.8 °C 22 % 55 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
11 Aug 21.2 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Aug 21.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Aug 23.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Aug 24.9 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Aug 25.0 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Aug 24.6 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
17 Aug 23.2 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
18 Aug 18.7 °C 40 % 30 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 4
19 Aug 19.4 °C 39 % 48 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 5
20 Aug 20.8 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Aug 25.4 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Aug 23.3 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.8 mm High 25
23 Aug 21.5 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Aug 16.9 °C 40 % 32 km/h 4.5 mm Very low 3
25 Aug 17.3 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.6 mm Low 10
26 Aug 17.5 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 18
27 Aug 20.1 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Aug 21.6 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Aug 21.5 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Aug 22.4 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
31 Aug 24.6 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Sept 24.0 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Sept 21.8 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm High 29
3 Sept 20.9 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
4 Sept 17.4 °C 41 % 58 km/h 4.1 mm Very low 5
5 Sept 21.5 °C 14 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Sept 21.0 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Sept 21.0 °C 15 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Sept 22.1 °C 15 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Sept 15.2 °C 19 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept 20.5 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Sept 23.0 °C 13 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 19.3 °C 19 % 53 km/h 0.7 mm High 30
13 Sept 15.0 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
14 Sept 16.3 °C 37 % 60 km/h 2.8 mm Low 8
15 Sept 12.2 °C 45 % 55 km/h 1.2 mm Low 7
16 Sept 15.7 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
17 Sept 16.8 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
18 Sept 20.6 °C 23 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Sept 23.1 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Sept 22.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept 16.7 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
22 Sept 18.9 °C 36 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Sept 9.0 °C 77 % 41 km/h 6.7 mm Very low 0
24 Sept after 7.1 °C 56 % 60 km/h 3.8 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jun 2016
After · 30 Sept 2016

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 · 2,427Every 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 Beaver Creek Fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (19 June 2016). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 23 September 2016 (97 days from 19 June 2016), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 17,886 hectares (178.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Jackson (16,783 ha, 4.0 %); Carbon (1,179 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: MTBS (US Geological Survey and US Forest Service), official.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 2,427 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.