How long did the Cowbell Fire last?

The official perimeter only gives the start date (30 March 2017). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 30 April 2017 (36 days from 26 March 2017), 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 8,807 hectares (88.1 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 2 counties: Collier (8,792 ha, 1.6 %); Hendry (37 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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.

US · United States · 2017-03-26 → 2017-04-30

Cowbell Fire, March 2017 Collier, Hendry

Out · last detection 30 Apr 2017, 18:47 UTC

The fire started on 26 March 2017 in Collier, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 8,807 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 10th largest in Florida since 2016 (of 148 with a page). Number 92 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cypress Camp Trail · 2023 Three Mile · 2017 Buzzard · 2018 Bobcat · 2021

Burnt area: 8,807ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: ≈ 36days; 26 Mar 2017 – 30 Apr 2017
Counties hit: 2; counties
Started on: 26 Mar; 2017
Heat detections: 196; in a single hotspot: 240 MW
Danger at start: 16; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 121MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Mar30 Apr

Play back 30 Apr 2017

How it evolved, day by day

26 Mar 1 Apr 10 Apr 14 Apr 20 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

62km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.4 mm on 1 May.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 5.6% of the area of London (88 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

Collier where it started

8,792 ha reached on 26 Mar

1.6 %
Hendry

37 ha

0.0 %

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 2015

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)
26 Mar	27.9 °C	48 %	37 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 16
27 Mar	30.4 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
28 Mar	31.5 °C	29 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
29 Mar	31.9 °C	29 %	27 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 19
30 Mar	32.0 °C	29 %	36 km/h	0.2 mm	High 25
31 Mar	32.0 °C	34 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
1 Apr	32.0 °C	42 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
2 Apr	32.9 °C	45 %	27 km/h	6.0 mm	Very low 4
3 Apr	32.9 °C	44 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
4 Apr	32.4 °C	40 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
5 Apr	34.8 °C	34 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
6 Apr	32.1 °C	32 %	62 km/h	1.2 mm	High 25
7 Apr	26.0 °C	19 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
8 Apr	27.3 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
9 Apr	28.3 °C	32 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
10 Apr	28.7 °C	43 %	43 km/h	0.1 mm	High 28
11 Apr	29.8 °C	37 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
12 Apr	29.4 °C	48 %	40 km/h	0.5 mm	High 23
13 Apr	30.3 °C	35 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
14 Apr	31.9 °C	23 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
15 Apr	30.4 °C	34 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Apr	29.5 °C	37 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
17 Apr	31.2 °C	30 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
18 Apr	30.6 °C	42 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	High 28
19 Apr	29.2 °C	38 %	43 km/h	0.1 mm	High 29
20 Apr	28.0 °C	46 %	41 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 21
21 Apr	30.8 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
22 Apr	27.5 °C	57 %	36 km/h	4.5 mm	Low 5
23 Apr	27.2 °C	69 %	27 km/h	20.1 mm	Very low 0
24 Apr	31.1 °C	47 %	54 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 9
25 Apr	28.3 °C	40 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
26 Apr	32.3 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
27 Apr	34.4 °C	35 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
28 Apr	34.7 °C	38 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
29 Apr	33.2 °C	38 %	52 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
30 Apr	32.6 °C	41 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
1 May after	33.1 °C	47 %	44 km/h	6.4 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Mar 2017

After · 7 May 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 · 196Every 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

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Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cowbell Fire last?: The official perimeter only gives the start date (30 March 2017). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 30 April 2017 (36 days from 26 March 2017), 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 8,807 hectares (88.1 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 2 counties: Collier (8,792 ha, 1.6 %); Hendry (37 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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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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What really happened?

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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.

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. 196 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 2015, 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.

Where it burned