How long did the Falls fire last?

It burned between 10 July 2024 and 10 July 2024: 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 60,817 hectares (608.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 2 counties: Harney (50,638 ha, 1.9 %); Grant (12,102 ha, 1.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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 · 2024-07-10 → 2024-07-10

Falls Fire, July 2024 Harney, Grant

Out · last measured on 10 Jul 2024

The fire started on 10 July 2024 in Harney, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 60,817 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 12th largest in Oregon since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 9 in United States in 2024, of 371.

Burnt area: 60,817ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 10 Jul 2024 – 10 Jul 2024
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 10 Jul; 2024
Heat detections: 888; in a single hotspot: 703 MW
Danger at start: 52; Extreme · FWI index

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jul10 Jul

The weather it burned in

35°high

52km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 183 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

Harney where it started

50,638 ha reached on 16 Jul

1.9 %
Grant

12,102 ha reached on 19 Jul

1.0 %

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)
10 Jul	32.8 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
11 Jul after	32.3 °C	16 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
12 Jul after	32.8 °C	11 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
13 Jul after	34.6 °C	11 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
14 Jul after	29.3 °C	19 %	52 km/h	0.3 mm	Extreme 54
15 Jul after	30.3 °C	15 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
16 Jul after	30.8 °C	14 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
17 Jul after	31.6 °C	10 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
18 Jul after	31.8 °C	13 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
19 Jul after	31.1 °C	14 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
20 Jul after	33.6 °C	11 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
21 Jul after	34.6 °C	13 %	54 km/h	0.2 mm	Extreme 58
22 Jul after	33.7 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
23 Jul after	33.6 °C	15 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
24 Jul after	30.8 °C	23 %	70 km/h	0.2 mm	Extreme 63
25 Jul after	25.4 °C	21 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
26 Jul after	27.4 °C	17 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
27 Jul after	26.4 °C	15 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 3 Jul 2024

After · 17 Jul 2024

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 10 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak15 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1023 µg/m³

Optical depth0.45

8910111213

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 888Every 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 Falls fire last?: It burned between 10 July 2024 and 10 July 2024: 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 60,817 hectares (608.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 2 counties: Harney (50,638 ha, 1.9 %); Grant (12,102 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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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What really happened?

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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