Skip to content
worldfires
en
US · United States · →

Broken Lookout Fire, August 2017 Douglas, Jackson

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2017, 10:26 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2017 in Douglas, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 42 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 7,744 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 88th largest in Oregon since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 100 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Miles · 2018Big Hamlin · 2021Smith · 2021Happy Dog · 2017

Burnt area
7,744ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
≈ 42days
7 Aug 2017 – 17 Sept 2017
Counties hit
2
counties
Started on
7 Aug
2017
Heat detections
1,473
in a single hotspot: 243 MW
Danger at start
11
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
329MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug17 Sept
17 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

8 Aug 2017 · 96 MW · 8 11 Aug 2017 · 2 MW · 2 12 Aug 2017 · 3 MW · 3 16 Aug 2017 · 5 MW · 5 17 Aug 2017 · 60 MW · 18 18 Aug 2017 · 170 MW · 31 19 Aug 2017 · 111 MW · 32 20 Aug 2017 · 103 MW · 17 21 Aug 2017 · 52 MW · 20 22 Aug 2017 · 101 MW · 32 23 Aug 2017 · 79 MW · 33 24 Aug 2017 · 27 MW · 15 25 Aug 2017 · 15 MW · 4 26 Aug 2017 · 1,011 MW · 38 27 Aug 2017 · 905 MW · 66 28 Aug 2017 · 696 MW · 128 29 Aug 2017 · 482 MW · 84 30 Aug 2017 · 79 MW · 60 31 Aug 2017 · 189 MW · 24 1 Sept 2017 · 267 MW · 77 2 Sept 2017 · 649 MW · 135 3 Sept 2017 · 1,715 MW · 162 4 Sept 2017 · 1,974 MW · 249 5 Sept 2017 · 1,065 MW · 115 11 Sept 2017 · 44 MW · 9 12 Sept 2017 · 45 MW · 19 13 Sept 2017 · 66 MW · 36 14 Sept 2017 · 78 MW · 15 15 Sept 2017 · 77 MW · 26 16 Sept 2017 · 30 MW · 5 17 Sept 2017 · 6 MW · 5
8 Aug 18 Aug 23 Aug 28 Aug 2 Sept 4 Sept 12 Sept 17 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

32°high
46km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.0 mm on 18 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 4.9% of the area of London (77 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. Douglas where it started
    5,294 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.4 %
  2. Jackson
    2,453 ha reached on 12 Aug
    0.3 %

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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable 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)
7 Aug 24.8 °C 24 % 33 km/h 2.5 mm Low 11
8 Aug 25.6 °C 25 % 36 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 16
9 Aug 25.1 °C 29 % 35 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16
10 Aug 23.5 °C 35 % 32 km/h 2.1 mm Low 7
11 Aug 23.8 °C 31 % 31 km/h 2.0 mm Low 8
12 Aug 21.7 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
13 Aug 16.8 °C 56 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
14 Aug 19.7 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Aug 20.5 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Aug 24.1 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Aug 24.7 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug 24.6 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug 22.5 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Aug 23.5 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug 24.4 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Aug 23.4 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
23 Aug 22.6 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Aug 19.8 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Aug 23.4 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Aug 28.2 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug 28.1 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug 29.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Aug 26.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Aug 21.5 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Aug 26.1 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept 31.4 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept 31.8 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Sept 29.0 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Sept 30.0 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Sept 27.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Sept 23.1 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
7 Sept 20.7 °C 53 % 34 km/h 15.9 mm Very low 0
8 Sept 18.4 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 4
9 Sept 20.4 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
10 Sept 23.6 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
11 Sept 27.2 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Sept 22.2 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Sept 19.9 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Sept 14.4 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Sept 17.3 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Sept 15.9 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Sept 14.6 °C 35 % 46 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 14
18 Sept after 8.7 °C 68 % 53 km/h 16.0 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Jul 2017
After · 24 Sept 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 · 1,473Every 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 Broken Lookout Fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (8 August 2017). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 17 September 2017 (42 days from 7 August 2017), 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 7,744 hectares (77.4 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Douglas (5,294 ha, 0.4 %); Jackson (2,453 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 8 August 2017 → 7 August 2017.

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
What do you think is wrong?

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. 1,473 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.