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Carr Fire, July 2018 Shasta, Trinity

Out · last detection 24 Jul 2018, 21:36 UTC

The fire started on 23 July 2018 in Shasta, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 94,505 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 10th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 6 in United States in 2018, of 511.

Burnt area
94,505ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
23 Jul 2018 – 23 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
23 Jul
2018
Heat detections
11,986
in a single hotspot: 639 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jul23 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2324

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
60km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 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

  1. Shasta where it started
    85,536 ha reached on 20 Jul
    8.6 %
  2. Trinity
    9,100 ha reached on 29 Jul
    1.1 %

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)
20 Jul 35.2 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Jul 33.2 °C 17 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jul 33.5 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
23 Jul 35.0 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jul after 36.6 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jul after 39.0 °C 7 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Jul after 40.1 °C 6 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
27 Jul after 38.8 °C 6 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
28 Jul after 38.5 °C 6 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Jul after 37.1 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Jul after 37.1 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Jul after 36.3 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Aug after 34.1 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Aug after 34.7 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Aug after 34.3 °C 6 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Aug after 30.0 °C 13 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Aug after 31.6 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Aug after 35.2 °C 7 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Aug after 37.2 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Aug after 34.3 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Aug after 36.7 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jul 2018
After · 30 Jul 2018

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 · 11,986Every 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 Carr fire last?
It burned between 23 July 2018 and 23 July 2018: 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 94,505 hectares (945.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Shasta (85,536 ha, 8.6 %); Trinity (9,100 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, class Extreme.
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.

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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.