How long did the Caples fire last?

It burned between 10 October 2019 and 10 October 2019: 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 1,420 hectares (14.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered El Dorado (1,422 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 21.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 95 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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 · 2019-10-10 → 2019-10-10

Caples Fire, October 2019 El Dorado

Out · last detection 11 Oct 2019, 21:11 UTC

The fire started on 10 October 2019 in El Dorado, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,420 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 241th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 163 in United States in 2019, of 367.

Burnt area: 1,420ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 10 Oct 2019 – 10 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 10 Oct; 2019
Heat detections: 419; in a single hotspot: 209 MW
Danger at start: 6; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 2.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 11 Oct 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Oct10 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1011

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

The weather it burned in

21°high

95km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

El Dorado where it started

1,422 ha reached on 3 Oct

0.3 %

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)
3 Oct	13.5 °C	25 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
4 Oct	14.8 °C	20 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
5 Oct	18.7 °C	24 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
6 Oct	21.4 °C	22 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
7 Oct	20.8 °C	18 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
8 Oct	19.2 °C	22 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
9 Oct	15.0 °C	26 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
10 Oct	14.7 °C	13 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
11 Oct after	17.1 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
12 Oct after	17.4 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
13 Oct after	15.2 °C	17 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
14 Oct after	17.9 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
15 Oct after	19.1 °C	14 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
16 Oct after	16.2 °C	20 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
17 Oct after	9.9 °C	40 %	47 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 16
18 Oct after	11.4 °C	32 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
19 Oct after	10.7 °C	45 %	53 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 15
20 Oct after	16.1 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
21 Oct after	20.3 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
22 Oct after	21.4 °C	16 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
23 Oct after	17.6 °C	21 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
24 Oct after	20.1 °C	14 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
25 Oct after	21.2 °C	16 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
26 Oct after	18.1 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
27 Oct after	6.9 °C	24 %	95 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
28 Oct after	11.2 °C	14 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
29 Oct after	10.7 °C	23 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
30 Oct after	11.9 °C	14 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
31 Oct after	15.4 °C	17 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
1 Nov after	18.8 °C	11 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
2 Nov after	18.4 °C	12 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
3 Nov after	19.4 °C	14 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
4 Nov after	20.7 °C	14 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
5 Nov after	19.8 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
6 Nov after	19.3 °C	16 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 3 Oct 2019

After · 17 Oct 2019

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 · 419Every 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 Caples fire last?: It burned between 10 October 2019 and 10 October 2019: 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 1,420 hectares (14.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered El Dorado (1,422 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 21.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 95 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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 ↗

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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