How long did the Cove fire last?

It burned between 25 July 2017 and 25 July 2017: 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 12,498 hectares (125.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered Modoc (12,430 ha, 1.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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 · 2017-07-25 → 2017-07-25

Cove Fire, July 2017 Modoc

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2017, 21:43 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2017 in Modoc, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 12,498 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 81th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 62 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area: 12,498ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 25 Jul 2017 – 25 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 25 Jul; 2017
Heat detections: 1,189; in a single hotspot: 347 MW
Danger at start: 13; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 2MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul25 Jul

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

38°high

50km/h · peak gust

9%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 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

Modoc where it started

12,430 ha reached on 26 Jul

1.1 %

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)
25 Jul	30.5 °C	18 %	32 km/h	3.0 mm	Moderate 13
26 Jul after	29.3 °C	19 %	45 km/h	1.1 mm	High 29
27 Jul after	32.6 °C	12 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
28 Jul after	34.3 °C	9 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
29 Jul after	33.1 °C	9 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
30 Jul after	35.0 °C	11 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
31 Jul after	35.7 °C	10 %	21 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 46
1 Aug after	36.5 °C	10 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
2 Aug after	37.1 °C	9 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
3 Aug after	37.6 °C	12 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
4 Aug after	34.5 °C	15 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
5 Aug after	30.1 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
6 Aug after	30.9 °C	18 %	50 km/h	0.6 mm	Very high 41
7 Aug after	29.8 °C	21 %	31 km/h	1.8 mm	Moderate 20
8 Aug after	31.0 °C	19 %	32 km/h	1.1 mm	High 28
9 Aug after	30.5 °C	17 %	36 km/h	0.6 mm	High 37
10 Aug after	30.4 °C	21 %	31 km/h	1.3 mm	High 31
11 Aug after	31.9 °C	12 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
12 Aug after	30.8 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
13 Aug after	30.8 °C	16 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
14 Aug after	27.2 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	High 35
15 Aug after	29.4 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
16 Aug after	30.2 °C	13 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
17 Aug after	32.2 °C	11 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
18 Aug after	33.6 °C	10 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
19 Aug after	31.6 °C	10 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
20 Aug after	31.7 °C	13 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
21 Aug after	31.2 °C	14 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
22 Aug after	30.8 °C	19 %	51 km/h	0.7 mm	High 36
23 Aug after	31.0 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Jul 2017

After · 1 Aug 2017

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 · 1,189Every 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

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cove fire last?: It burned between 25 July 2017 and 25 July 2017: 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 12,498 hectares (125.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered Modoc (12,430 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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