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Cold Fire, August 2016 Yolo, Napa, Solano

Out · last detection 4 Aug 2016, 09:56 UTC

The fire started on 3 August 2016 in Yolo, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 2,544 hectares, spread across 3 counties.

It is the 186th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 133 in United States in 2016, of 475.

Burnt area
2,544ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
3 Aug 2016 – 3 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
3 Aug
2016
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
668MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Aug3 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

34

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
43km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Yolo where it started
    2,395 ha reached on 3 Aug
    0.9 %
  2. Napa
    109 ha reached on 4 Aug
    0.0 %
  3. Solano
    36 ha reached on 3 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
3 Aug 33.8 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Aug after 27.2 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Aug after 27.7 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Aug after 28.8 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Aug after 31.4 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Aug after 32.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug after 32.8 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Aug after 31.8 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Aug after 31.7 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Aug after 34.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Aug after 36.1 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Aug after 34.1 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Aug after 31.5 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Jul 2016
After · 10 Aug 2016

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 · 128Every 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 Cold fire last?
It burned between 3 August 2016 and 3 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 2,544 hectares (25.4 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 3 counties: Yolo (2,395 ha, 0.9 %); Napa (109 ha, 0.0 %); Solano (36 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.

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.