Skip to content
worldfires
US · United States · →

Carson fire, December 2016 Carson, Potter

Out · last detection 31 Dec 2016, 08:22 UTC

The fire started on 30 December 2016 in Carson, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 2,595 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 75th largest in Texas since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 129 in United States in 2016, of 475.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,595ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
30 Dec 2016 – 30 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
30 Dec
2016
Heat detections
10
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
85MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Dec30 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

31

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

The weather it burned in

15°high
59km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.7 mm on 6 Jan.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Carson where it started
    1,738 ha reached on 31 Dec
    0.7 %
  2. Potter
    853 ha reached on 31 Dec
    0.4 %

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)
30 Dec 15.2 °C 24 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Dec after 7.3 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
1 Jan after 17.7 °C 25 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
2 Jan after 15.1 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
3 Jan after 9.3 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
4 Jan after 7.9 °C 39 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
5 Jan after 2.4 °C 55 % 49 km/h 0.7 mm Low 10
6 Jan after -8.7 °C 68 % 40 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Dec 2016
After · 6 Jan 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 · 10Every 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 Carson fire last?
It burned between 30 December 2016 and 30 December 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 2,595 hectares (26.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Carson (1,738 ha, 0.7 %); Potter (853 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 15.2 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 59 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

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.