Skip to content
worldfires
US · United States · →

Buck Fire, September 2017 Trinity, Tehama

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2017, 21:05 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2017 in Trinity, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 5,504 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 124th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 139 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area
5,504ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
13 Sept 2017 – 13 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
13 Sept
2017
Heat detections
1,208
in a single hotspot: 231 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1314

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

The weather it burned in

22°high
58km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 20 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Trinity where it started
    5,401 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.6 %
  2. Tehama
    77 ha reached on 26 Sept
    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)
13 Sept 21.6 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
14 Sept after 15.6 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Sept after 16.5 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
16 Sept after 17.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Sept after 17.6 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Sept after 11.4 °C 40 % 50 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 14
19 Sept after 8.4 °C 46 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
20 Sept after 9.1 °C 48 % 51 km/h 1.4 mm Low 7
21 Sept after 8.3 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
22 Sept after 10.1 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Sept after 13.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
24 Sept after 15.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
25 Sept after 18.6 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 Sept after 19.3 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Sept after 20.5 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Sept after 19.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Sept after 16.3 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 Sept after 15.7 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Oct after 13.3 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Oct after 11.4 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Oct after 12.3 °C 10 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Oct after 14.1 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Oct after 16.1 °C 9 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Oct after 21.8 °C 5 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Oct after 18.6 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Oct after 11.4 °C 12 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Oct after 15.0 °C 3 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Oct after 13.5 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Oct after 7.6 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Oct after 10.4 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Oct after 11.8 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Oct after 13.7 °C 7 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Oct after 17.3 °C 4 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Oct after 18.7 °C 3 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Oct after 18.0 °C 8 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Oct after 17.3 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Oct after 10.1 °C 35 % 54 km/h 13.4 mm Very low 1
20 Oct after 1.9 °C 54 % 44 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2017
After · 20 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 · 1,208Every 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 Buck fire last?
It burned between 13 September 2017 and 13 September 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 5,504 hectares (55.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Trinity (5,401 ha, 0.6 %); Tehama (77 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 21.8 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

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.

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.