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US · United States · –

Chickadee Creek Fire, August 2021 Okanogan

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2021, 20:05 UTC

The fire started on 4 August 2021 in Okanogan, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 2,834 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 111th largest in Washington since 2016 (of 285 with a page). Number 136 in United States in 2021, of 385.

Burnt area
2,834ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
≈ 35days
4 Aug 2021 – 7 Sept 2021
Counties hit
1
counties
Started on
4 Aug
2021
Heat detections
511
in a single hotspot: 168 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
241MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Aug7 Sept
7 Sept 2021

How it evolved, day by day

4 Aug 2021 · 51 MW · 2 5 Aug 2021 · 423 MW · 14 6 Aug 2021 · 406 MW · 43 9 Aug 2021 · 1 MW · 1 11 Aug 2021 · 42 MW · 6 12 Aug 2021 · 3 MW · 6 13 Aug 2021 · 11 MW · 3 15 Aug 2021 · 999 MW · 20 16 Aug 2021 · 3,442 MW · 96 17 Aug 2021 · 222 MW · 30 18 Aug 2021 · 478 MW · 122 19 Aug 2021 · 114 MW · 59 20 Aug 2021 · 144 MW · 49 22 Aug 2021 · 5 MW · 2 23 Aug 2021 · 10 MW · 7 25 Aug 2021 · 28 MW · 4 26 Aug 2021 · 36 MW · 12 27 Aug 2021 · 2 MW · 1 28 Aug 2021 · 23 MW · 9 29 Aug 2021 · 55 MW · 15 30 Aug 2021 · 1 MW · 1 31 Aug 2021 · 3 MW · 3 2 Sept 2021 · 1 MW · 1 3 Sept 2021 · 1 MW · 1 4 Sept 2021 · 1 MW · 1 6 Sept 2021 · 1 MW · 1 7 Sept 2021 · 7 MW · 2
4 Aug 16 Aug 28 Aug 4 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
61km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.7 mm on 10 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.8% of the area of London (28 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each county

  1. Okanogan where it started
    2,850 ha reached on 4 Aug
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
4 Aug 25.6 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Aug 25.8 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
6 Aug 22.7 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.9 mm High 38
7 Aug 19.4 °C 36 % 39 km/h 1.1 mm Low 9
8 Aug 13.8 °C 48 % 50 km/h 4.5 mm Low 6
9 Aug 20.8 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
10 Aug 25.2 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Aug 29.5 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Aug 27.5 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Aug 27.1 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Aug 28.7 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Aug 27.1 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Aug 22.3 °C 33 % 39 km/h 1.1 mm High 34
17 Aug 14.7 °C 39 % 61 km/h 3.1 mm Low 8
18 Aug 21.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
19 Aug 18.2 °C 43 % 27 km/h 5.5 mm Moderate 16
20 Aug 15.3 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 2
21 Aug 14.7 °C 53 % 21 km/h 3.0 mm Very low 2
22 Aug 16.5 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
23 Aug 12.9 °C 39 % 33 km/h 2.1 mm Low 8
24 Aug 15.7 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
25 Aug 18.8 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
26 Aug 17.6 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
27 Aug 14.6 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
28 Aug 19.4 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Aug 21.1 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 Aug 19.0 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
31 Aug 11.5 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm High 22
1 Sept 13.4 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Sept 16.1 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Sept 18.6 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Sept 19.0 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Sept 19.8 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Sept 21.1 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Sept 21.7 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Sept after 21.4 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
9 Sept after 20.6 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Sept after 15.3 °C 46 % 19 km/h 5.7 mm Low 11

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 28.0, a minimum humidity of 26% and 1 day without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 25.

FWI at the start 28.0
Minimum humidity 26 %
Days without rain 1
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Crater Creek Fire, August 2023
1,957 ha 12 days FWI 28.3 Min. humidity 25 % 30 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.8 mm on 30 Aug.

What happened to them

26 days
median duration
1,957 ha
median area
80 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 24 of 25 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,834 ha against a median of 1,957 ha) and lasted 35 days, against 26 days.

In 1 of 25, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

5.7 mmfirst rain
10 Sept3 days after it ended
61km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 7 Sept, and on 10 Sept 5.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 24 of 25, with a median of 3.6 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jul 2021
After · 14 Sept 2021

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 · 511Every 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 Chickadee Creek Fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (4 August 2021). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 7 September 2021 (35 days from 4 August 2021), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 2,834 hectares (28.3 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Okanogan (2,850 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 25. Their median duration was 26 days and their median area 1,957 ha; 80 % went past 1,000 ha. In 1 of 25, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: MTBS (US Geological Survey and US Forest Service), official.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 511 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.