How long did the Cedar fire last?

It burned between 16 August 2016 and 16 August 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 11,809 hectares (118.1 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 2 counties: Tulare (5,976 ha, 0.5 %); Kern (5,858 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 28.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.

US · United States · 2016-08-16 → 2016-08-16

Cedar Fire, August 2016 Tulare, Kern

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2016, 20:33 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2016 in Kern, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 11,809 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 86th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 34 in United States in 2016, of 475.

Burnt area: 11,809ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 16 Aug 2016 – 16 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 16 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 2,431; in a single hotspot: 1,462 MW
Danger at start: 50; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 118MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug16 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

29°high

50km/h · peak gust

6%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 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

Tulare

5,976 ha reached on 18 Aug

0.5 %
Kern where it started

5,858 ha reached on 17 Aug

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)
16 Aug	28.2 °C	6 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
17 Aug after	28.8 °C	8 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
18 Aug after	28.6 °C	6 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
19 Aug after	27.6 °C	7 %	42 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 47
20 Aug after	26.8 °C	17 %	38 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 44
21 Aug after	25.0 °C	23 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
22 Aug after	23.8 °C	28 %	37 km/h	2.8 mm	Low 9
23 Aug after	24.5 °C	25 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
24 Aug after	24.9 °C	18 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
25 Aug after	25.0 °C	14 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
26 Aug after	23.8 °C	17 %	43 km/h	0.3 mm	High 38
27 Aug after	23.3 °C	23 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
28 Aug after	25.7 °C	18 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
29 Aug after	27.1 °C	13 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Aug after	27.9 °C	14 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
31 Aug after	26.8 °C	16 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
1 Sept after	25.2 °C	18 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
2 Sept after	25.0 °C	13 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
3 Sept after	22.7 °C	17 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
4 Sept after	19.1 °C	18 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
5 Sept after	19.9 °C	20 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
6 Sept after	23.6 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
7 Sept after	25.7 °C	10 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
8 Sept after	25.5 °C	6 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
9 Sept after	26.3 °C	16 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
10 Sept after	26.4 °C	18 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Aug 2016

After · 23 Aug 2016

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 · 2,431Every 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

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Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cedar fire last?: It burned between 16 August 2016 and 16 August 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 11,809 hectares (118.1 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 2 counties: Tulare (5,976 ha, 0.5 %); Kern (5,858 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 28.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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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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