How long did the Boteler fire last?

It burned between 25 October 2016 and 25 October 2016: 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 3,496 hectares (35.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered Clay (3,498 ha, 6.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 23.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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 · 2016-10-25 → 2016-10-25

Boteler Fire, October 2016 Clay

Out · last measured on 25 Oct 2016

The fire started on 25 October 2016 in Clay, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 3,496 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 4th largest in North Carolina since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 97 in United States in 2016, of 475.

Burnt area: 3,496ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 25 Oct 2016 – 25 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 25 Oct; 2016
Heat detections: 202; in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start: 13; Moderate · FWI index

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Oct25 Oct

The weather it burned in

23°high

52km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 24 Nov.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Clay where it started

3,498 ha reached on 31 Oct

6.1 %

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)
25 Oct	18.7 °C	28 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
26 Oct after	17.5 °C	44 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
27 Oct after	18.0 °C	63 %	50 km/h	0.3 mm	Low 11
28 Oct after	22.0 °C	28 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
29 Oct after	22.5 °C	31 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
30 Oct after	21.5 °C	34 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
31 Oct after	23.0 °C	34 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
1 Nov after	20.3 °C	44 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
2 Nov after	19.9 °C	42 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
3 Nov after	20.3 °C	47 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
4 Nov after	18.3 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 18
5 Nov after	16.4 °C	32 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
6 Nov after	17.3 °C	29 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
7 Nov after	16.0 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
8 Nov after	14.6 °C	29 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
9 Nov after	11.7 °C	40 %	52 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 20
10 Nov after	16.6 °C	15 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
11 Nov after	14.0 °C	24 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
12 Nov after	11.6 °C	36 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
13 Nov after	11.1 °C	31 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
14 Nov after	13.2 °C	32 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
15 Nov after	12.8 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
16 Nov after	15.3 °C	28 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
17 Nov after	19.6 °C	25 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
18 Nov after	20.4 °C	22 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
19 Nov after	8.2 °C	31 %	72 km/h	0.1 mm	High 29
20 Nov after	4.3 °C	22 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
21 Nov after	8.3 °C	12 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
22 Nov after	10.0 °C	18 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
23 Nov after	11.2 °C	27 %	42 km/h	0.4 mm	High 23
24 Nov after	14.3 °C	65 %	27 km/h	1.5 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Oct 2016

After · 1 Nov 2016

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 · 202Every 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 Boteler fire last?: It burned between 25 October 2016 and 25 October 2016: 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 3,496 hectares (35.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered Clay (3,498 ha, 6.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 23.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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