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Elmo Fire, July 2022 Lake, Flathead

Out · last measured on 30 Jul 2022

The fire started on 30 July 2022 in Lake, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 8,966 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 31th largest in Montana since 2016 (of 302 with a page). Number 63 in United States in 2022, of 493.

We have the official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC) for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by county is there.

Burnt area
8,966ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
30 Jul 2022 – 30 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
30 Jul
2022
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

35°high
23km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 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

  1. Lake where it started
    7,892 ha
    1.8 %
  2. Flathead
    1,081 ha
    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)
30 Jul 34.8 °C 10 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Jul after 35.5 °C 5 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Aug after 33.2 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Aug after 28.8 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Aug after 30.6 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Aug after 27.1 °C 15 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Aug after 25.2 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Aug after 24.9 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
7 Aug after 29.6 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Aug after 32.7 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Aug after 33.8 °C 11 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2022
After · 6 Aug 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Elmo fire last?
It burned between 30 July 2022 and 30 July 2022: 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 8,966 hectares (89.7 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Lake (7,892 ha, 1.8 %); Flathead (1,081 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 23 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

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.