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Dolan Fire, August 2020 Monterey

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2020, 21:35 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2020 in Monterey, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 44 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 50,320 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 21th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 23 in United States in 2020, of 441.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Stony · 2016Soberanes · 2016Willow · 2021Coleman · 2016

Burnt area
50,320ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
≈ 44days
19 Aug 2020 – 1 Oct 2020
Counties hit
1
counties
Started on
19 Aug
2020
Heat detections
5,164
in a single hotspot: 812 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
2.6GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug1 Oct
1 Oct 2020

How it evolved, day by day

19 Aug 2020 · 3,167 MW · 168 20 Aug 2020 · 3,329 MW · 213 21 Aug 2020 · 4,295 MW · 225 22 Aug 2020 · 3,916 MW · 219 23 Aug 2020 · 501 MW · 91 24 Aug 2020 · 1,634 MW · 80 25 Aug 2020 · 353 MW · 45 26 Aug 2020 · 734 MW · 31 27 Aug 2020 · 1,505 MW · 52 28 Aug 2020 · 1,676 MW · 168 29 Aug 2020 · 1,758 MW · 125 30 Aug 2020 · 3,492 MW · 113 31 Aug 2020 · 1,485 MW · 134 1 Sept 2020 · 744 MW · 78 2 Sept 2020 · 317 MW · 44 3 Sept 2020 · 853 MW · 55 4 Sept 2020 · 543 MW · 43 5 Sept 2020 · 1,022 MW · 65 6 Sept 2020 · 1,200 MW · 85 7 Sept 2020 · 4,782 MW · 157 8 Sept 2020 · 37,195 MW · 1365 9 Sept 2020 · 4,664 MW · 460 10 Sept 2020 · 2,279 MW · 287 11 Sept 2020 · 1,017 MW · 190 12 Sept 2020 · 2,213 MW · 131 13 Sept 2020 · 3,431 MW · 131 14 Sept 2020 · 2,488 MW · 68 15 Sept 2020 · 6,466 MW · 128 16 Sept 2020 · 1,129 MW · 84 17 Sept 2020 · 173 MW · 56 18 Sept 2020 · 398 MW · 14 19 Sept 2020 · 165 MW · 21 20 Sept 2020 · 531 MW · 16 21 Sept 2020 · 21 MW · 4 22 Sept 2020 · 2 MW · 2 26 Sept 2020 · 1 MW · 1 29 Sept 2020 · 96 MW · 7 30 Sept 2020 · 60 MW · 7 1 Oct 2020 · 13 MW · 1
19 Aug 25 Aug 31 Aug 6 Sept 8 Sept 12 Sept 18 Sept 29 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

28°high
46km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,088 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 32% of the area of London (503 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. Monterey where it started
    50,208 ha reached on 19 Aug
    5.8 %

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 area1.3 ha
Residents≈ 100

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.3 hectares of built-up land and about 100 residents (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)
19 Aug 24.5 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Aug 21.7 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 21.8 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Aug 21.3 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Aug 19.7 °C 47 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Aug 18.2 °C 64 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
25 Aug 16.0 °C 70 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
26 Aug 18.4 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Aug 17.1 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
28 Aug 16.3 °C 56 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
29 Aug 16.0 °C 59 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
30 Aug 16.0 °C 56 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
31 Aug 15.9 °C 62 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
1 Sept 15.2 °C 66 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
2 Sept 16.9 °C 61 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
3 Sept 20.0 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Sept 22.2 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
5 Sept 24.6 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Sept 27.9 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Sept 27.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Sept 22.0 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Sept 16.5 °C 47 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Sept 14.4 °C 52 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
11 Sept 16.4 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
12 Sept 17.3 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Sept 15.8 °C 53 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Sept 17.2 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Sept 17.5 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
16 Sept 19.6 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Sept 18.9 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
18 Sept 17.3 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Sept 17.1 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Sept 18.5 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Sept 17.2 °C 45 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Sept 19.0 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Sept 20.5 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Sept 18.8 °C 43 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Sept 16.4 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Sept 19.2 °C 42 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Sept 20.8 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Sept 20.9 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
29 Sept 19.8 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 Sept 23.6 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Oct 25.7 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Oct after 23.9 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Oct after 23.4 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Oct after 21.9 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Oct after 19.9 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Oct after 18.2 °C 40 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
7 Oct after 16.6 °C 49 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Oct after 14.6 °C 46 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Oct after 14.6 °C 44 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Oct after 15.5 °C 59 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Oct after 17.1 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2020
After · 8 Oct 2020

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 · 5,164Every 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 Dolan Fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (19 August 2020). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 1 October 2020 (44 days from 19 August 2020), 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 50,320 hectares (503.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Monterey (50,208 ha, 5.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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 · 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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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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. 5,164 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.