Fork Fire, September 2020 El Dorado
The fire started on 8 September 2020 in El Dorado, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 687 hectares, spread across a single county.
It is the 342th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 338 in United States in 2020, of 441.
- Burnt area
- 687ha
- official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
- Duration
- 10days
- 8 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 8 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 147
- in a single hotspot: 153 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 320MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 20 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
-
El Dorado where it started689 ha reached on 8 Sept0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Sept | 23.6 °C | 8 % | 77 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 9 Sept | 25.1 °C | 11 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Sept | 20.8 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Sept | 23.9 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Sept | 26.2 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Sept | 26.3 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Sept | 25.2 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Sept | 25.3 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Sept | 25.0 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Sept | 23.8 °C | 19 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Sept after | 18.3 °C | 41 % | 65 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Sept after | 22.5 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Sept after | 24.8 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 21 Sept after | 23.9 °C | 16 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Sept after | 23.2 °C | 21 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Sept after | 24.0 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 24 Sept after | 22.4 °C | 18 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Sept after | 23.7 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Sept after | 23.6 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Sept after | 26.4 °C | 13 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 147Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Fork fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 September 2020 to 17 September 2020 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 September 2020 to 8 September 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 687 hectares (6.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
- Which counties burned?
- The fire only entered El Dorado (689 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 77 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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
- NIFC · National Interagency Fire Center ↗
- InciWeb · Incident Information System ↗
- MTBS · Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity ↗
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.
Report an error
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.