How long did the Drumming fire last?

It burned between 26 August 2020 and 26 August 2020: 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 1,467 hectares (14.7 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 2 counties: Flathead (972 ha, 0.1 %); Pondera (492 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 86 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.

US · United States · 2020-08-26 → 2020-08-26

Drumming Fire, August 2020 Flathead, Pondera

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2020, 20:54 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2020 in Flathead, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,467 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 138th largest in Montana since 2016 (of 302 with a page). Number 217 in United States in 2020, of 441.

Burnt area: 1,467ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 26 Aug 2020 – 26 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 26 Aug; 2020
Heat detections: 262; in a single hotspot: 448 MW
Danger at start: 29; High · FWI index
Energy released: 57MW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Aug 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2627

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

The weather it burned in

25°high

86km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.1 mm on 25 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Flathead where it started

972 ha reached on 26 Aug

0.1 %
Pondera

492 ha reached on 3 Sept

0.1 %

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)
26 Aug	20.3 °C	18 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
27 Aug after	19.6 °C	21 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
28 Aug after	21.7 °C	14 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
29 Aug after	18.5 °C	20 %	65 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
30 Aug after	13.9 °C	20 %	53 km/h	3.0 mm	Low 8
31 Aug after	10.0 °C	36 %	62 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 13
1 Sept after	18.3 °C	38 %	80 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
2 Sept after	16.5 °C	40 %	83 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
3 Sept after	20.1 °C	24 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
4 Sept after	24.7 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
5 Sept after	24.6 °C	12 %	67 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
6 Sept after	19.5 °C	35 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
7 Sept after	7.1 °C	78 %	71 km/h	15.2 mm	Very low 0
8 Sept after	9.6 °C	32 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
9 Sept after	17.8 °C	27 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
10 Sept after	21.6 °C	18 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
11 Sept after	21.6 °C	21 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
12 Sept after	22.2 °C	17 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
13 Sept after	17.8 °C	22 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
14 Sept after	16.3 °C	36 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
15 Sept after	16.8 °C	28 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Sept after	19.9 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
17 Sept after	19.0 °C	29 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
18 Sept after	22.7 °C	17 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
19 Sept after	12.2 °C	56 %	56 km/h	2.5 mm	Low 5
20 Sept after	10.4 °C	64 %	58 km/h	0.8 mm	Low 6
21 Sept after	14.4 °C	32 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
22 Sept after	10.1 °C	55 %	42 km/h	1.1 mm	Low 5
23 Sept after	15.4 °C	33 %	65 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
24 Sept after	15.4 °C	32 %	86 km/h	6.1 mm	Very low 5
25 Sept after	6.7 °C	52 %	80 km/h	5.1 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Aug 2020

After · 2 Sept 2020

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 · 262Every 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

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Frequently asked questions

How long did the Drumming fire last?: It burned between 26 August 2020 and 26 August 2020: 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 1,467 hectares (14.7 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 2 counties: Flathead (972 ha, 0.1 %); Pondera (492 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 86 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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

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