How long did the Big Red fire last?

It burned between 19 August 2017 and 19 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 1,162 hectares (11.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 2 counties: Routt (1,166 ha, 0.2 %); Jackson (0 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 25.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class 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.

US · United States · 2017-08-19 → 2017-08-19

Big Red Fire, August 2017 Routt, Jackson

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2017, 09:10 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2017 in Routt, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,162 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 88th largest in Colorado since 2016 (of 167 with a page). Number 355 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area: 1,162ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 19 Aug 2017 – 19 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 19 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 368; in a single hotspot: 239 MW
Danger at start: 19; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 4MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug19 Aug

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

26°high

50km/h · peak gust

11%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 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

Routt where it started

1,166 ha reached on 20 Aug

0.2 %
Jackson

0 ha

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)
19 Aug	22.5 °C	15 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
20 Aug after	23.3 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
21 Aug after	21.4 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
22 Aug after	22.5 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
23 Aug after	20.4 °C	30 %	34 km/h	2.0 mm	Very low 5
24 Aug after	21.2 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 14
25 Aug after	22.3 °C	19 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
26 Aug after	23.3 °C	17 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
27 Aug after	24.6 °C	14 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
28 Aug after	24.3 °C	16 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
29 Aug after	24.7 °C	15 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
30 Aug after	24.5 °C	15 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
31 Aug after	21.9 °C	25 %	43 km/h	2.0 mm	Low 9
1 Sept after	21.3 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 18
2 Sept after	24.9 °C	18 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
3 Sept after	25.7 °C	11 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
4 Sept after	23.6 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
5 Sept after	20.5 °C	21 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
6 Sept after	21.7 °C	18 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
7 Sept after	22.4 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
8 Sept after	21.2 °C	23 %	38 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 18
9 Sept after	21.7 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
10 Sept after	21.6 °C	33 %	34 km/h	2.4 mm	Low 6
11 Sept after	22.0 °C	30 %	23 km/h	4.0 mm	Very low 3
12 Sept after	22.6 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.6 mm	Low 11
13 Sept after	19.8 °C	31 %	50 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 18
14 Sept after	17.4 °C	28 %	47 km/h	2.3 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 12 Aug 2017

After · 26 Aug 2017

Before After

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 · 368Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Big Red fire last?: It burned between 19 August 2017 and 19 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 1,162 hectares (11.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 2 counties: Routt (1,166 ha, 0.2 %); Jackson (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 25.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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.

Where it burned