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Chalk Fire, June 2026 Elmore

Out · last measured on 15 Jun 2026

The fire started on 15 June 2026 in Elmore, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 488 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 345th largest in Idaho since 2016 (of 379 with a page). Number 379 in United States in 2026, of 423.

We have the official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC) for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks them up automatically when they are available.

Burnt area
488ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
15 Jun 2026 – 15 Jun 2026
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
15 Jun
2026
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
38km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 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. Elmore where it started
    476 ha
    0.1 %

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)
15 Jun 34.2 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Jun after 37.0 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
17 Jun after 31.8 °C 10 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
18 Jun after 32.7 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Jun after 35.4 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Jun after 29.5 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 64
21 Jun after 33.1 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Jun after 34.1 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Jun after 37.3 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Jun after 36.3 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
25 Jun after 34.6 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jun 2026
After · 22 Jun 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 14 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 9 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak9 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1018 µg/m³
Optical depth0.12
131415161718
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chalk fire last?
It burned between 15 June 2026 and 15 June 2026: 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 488 hectares (4.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Elmore (476 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.

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.