Burned area
satellite only602ha
Perimeter published by MTBS (USGS/USFS).
- Source
- MTBS (USGS/USFS)
- Date
- 7 Jul 2021 – 31 Jul 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
US · United States · –
Johnson Creek Fire, July 2021 Clearwater
Out · last detection 31 Jul 2021, 20:17 UTC
The fire started on 7 July 2021 in Clearwater, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 602 hectares, spread across a single county.
It is the 306th largest in Idaho since 2016 (of 379 with a page). Number 313 in United States in 2021, of 385.
The power measured by the satellite is low (9.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only25days
7 Jul 2021 to 31 Jul 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- MTBS (USGS/USFS) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 31 Jul 2021, 20:17 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only7 Jul 2021
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- MTBS (USGS/USFS) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 7 Jul 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only101
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 9 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 7 Jul 2021 – 31 Jul 2021
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only49MW
Total radiative power on 14 July 2021; hotspots that day: 8.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 14 Jul 2021
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model52.4FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 21.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 7 Jul 2021, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.8°C · 12% RH
High of 36.8 °C and minimum humidity of 12% on 31 July 2021; gusts of 52 km/h on 7 July 2021.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 7 Jul 2021 – 31 Jul 2021
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 602 ha
- Dates
- 7 Jul 2021 – 31 Jul 2021
- Name
- Johnson Creek
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/johnson-creek-fire-2021-07?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire johnson-creek-fire-2021-07.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-07-07 | 0 | 0 | 28.5 | 15.3 | 17 | 20.5 | 51.8 | 0 | 52.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-07-08 | 0 | 0 | 28.2 | 12.9 | 15 | 8.2 | 30.2 | 0 | 39.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-09 | 2 | 8 | 29.7 | 12.2 | 12 | 6.3 | 25.9 | 0 | 38.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-10 | 4 | 10 | 31.4 | 10.4 | 9 | 10.2 | 37.1 | 0 | 43.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-11 | 7 | 21 | 30.6 | 13.1 | 9 | 11.2 | 36.4 | 0 | 45.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-12 | 11 | 28 | 32.7 | 10.8 | 7 | 7.3 | 28.8 | 0 | 43.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-13 | 6 | 15 | 32.5 | 13.1 | 13 | 8.8 | 31 | 0 | 45.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-14 | 8 | 49 | 32.6 | 13.1 | 11 | 10.1 | 31 | 0 | 47.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-15 | 3 | 9 | 29.3 | 16.5 | 13 | 13 | 42.5 | 0 | 49.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-16 | 5 | 6 | 27.2 | 13.3 | 17 | 10.6 | 37.1 | 0 | 43.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-17 | 4 | 5 | 28.2 | 12.8 | 17 | 7 | 29.2 | 0 | 39.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-18 | 3 | 3 | 31.4 | 11.9 | 15 | 8.3 | 30.2 | 0 | 40.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-19 | 2 | 3 | 29 | 14 | 24 | 7.3 | 27.4 | 0 | 36.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-20 | 0 | 0 | 27.3 | 15.8 | 25 | 7.3 | 31.7 | 0 | 34.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-21 | 0 | 0 | 24.4 | 13 | 23 | 14.5 | 43.6 | 0 | 40 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-22 | 6 | 4 | 23.8 | 9.4 | 14 | 10.5 | 35.3 | 0 | 37.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-23 | 2 | 1 | 26.1 | 6.9 | 13 | 10.9 | 36.7 | 0 | 39.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-24 | 0 | 0 | 30.3 | 8.1 | 11 | 8.7 | 28.4 | 0 | 41.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-25 | 0 | 0 | 31.5 | 11.4 | 12 | 8.2 | 33.8 | 0 | 41.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-26 | 12 | 32 | 31.3 | 13 | 12 | 9.1 | 32 | 0 | 42.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-27 | 6 | 7 | 28.5 | 13.7 | 22 | 16.4 | 49.7 | 0 | 46.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-28 | 0 | 0 | 30.9 | 15.1 | 23 | 8.8 | 30.2 | 0.2 | 38.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-29 | 4 | 9 | 33.3 | 15.7 | 13 | 7.7 | 29.9 | 0 | 40.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-30 | 8 | 16 | 36.5 | 15.1 | 9 | 9.8 | 24.5 | 0 | 48.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-07-31 | 8 | 30 | 36.8 | 17.4 | 12 | 13.6 | 44.6 | 0 | 53.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-08-01 | 0 | 0 | 27.3 | 18.6 | 36 | 10.2 | 36 | 3.1 | 8.8 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: MTBS (USGS/USFS), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 602ha
- official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
- Duration
- ≈ 25days
- 7 Jul 2021 – 31 Jul 2021
- Counties hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 7 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 101
- in a single hotspot: 9 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 14MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
7 Jul31 Jul
31 Jul 2021
How it evolved, day by day
9 Jul
14 Jul
17 Jul
23 Jul
30 Jul
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
37°high
52km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity
It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 1 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each county
-
Clearwater where it started603 ha reached on 9 Jul0.1 %
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 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
Started with Strong wind: 27 % of the area in United States
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Jul | 28.5 °C | 17 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Jul | 28.2 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Jul | 29.7 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 10 Jul | 31.4 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Jul | 30.6 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Jul | 32.7 °C | 7 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Jul | 32.5 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 14 Jul | 32.6 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Jul | 29.3 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 16 Jul | 27.2 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 17 Jul | 28.2 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Jul | 31.4 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Jul | 29.0 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Jul | 27.3 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Jul | 24.4 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Jul | 23.8 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Jul | 26.1 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Jul | 30.3 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Jul | 31.5 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Jul | 31.3 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Jul | 28.5 °C | 22 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Jul | 30.9 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
| 29 Jul | 33.3 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Jul | 36.5 °C | 9 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 31 Jul | 36.8 °C | 12 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 1 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 3.1 mm | Low 9 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 52.4, a minimum humidity of 17% and 21 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 34.
FWI at the start
52.4
Minimum humidity
17 %
Days without rain
21
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Johnson Creek Fire, July 2021
602 ha
25 days
FWI 52.4
Min. humidity 17 %
Wagner Road Fire, July 2023
659 ha
1 day
FWI 52.8
Min. humidity 18 %
125 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Cayuse Mtn Fire, August 2016
3,941 ha
4 days
FWI 51.6
Min. humidity 19 %
180 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 1 Sept.
Spokane Complex, August 2016
2,767 ha
4 days
FWI 48.6
Min. humidity 18 %
111 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.9 mm on 2 Sept.
Wells Road Fire, August 2026
755 ha
3 days
FWI 54.6
Min. humidity 17 %
108 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Deep Creek Fire, August 2017
5,889 ha
19 days
FWI 45.7
Min. humidity 17 %
122 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 12.4 mm on 18 Sept.
What happened to them
- 3 days
- median duration
- 2,038 ha
- median area
- 65 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 3.4 mm
- rain at the end (median; 20 of 34 had it)
It stayed below its twins: 602 ha against a median of 2,038 ha. It lasted 25 days, against 3 days.
In 14 of 34, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.4 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
3.1 mmfirst rain
1 Augthe day after it ended
52km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 31 Jul, and on 1 Aug 3.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 34, with a median of 3.4 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 30 Jun 2021
After · 7 Aug 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 101Every 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
- 864 haScott ShoshoneJuly 2021 · 21 days · 19 km away
- 1,777 haBenton Ridge ClearwaterJuly 2021 · 37 days · 27 km away
- 714 haSand Mountain LatahJuly 2021 · 11 days · 33 km away
- 432 haStrychnine LatahSeptember 2017 · 8 days · 37 km away
- 1,289 haDevils Pulpit ShoshoneJuly 2021 · 42 days · 39 km away
- 690 haTexas LatahJuly 2024 · 2 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Johnson Creek Fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (7 July 2021). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 31 July 2021 (25 days from 7 July 2021), 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 602 hectares (6.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
- Which counties burned?
- The fire only entered Clearwater (603 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 34. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 2,038 ha; 65 % went past 1,000 ha. In 14 of 34, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.4 mm.
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
- NIFC · National Interagency Fire Center ↗
- InciWeb · Incident Information System ↗
- MTBS · Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity ↗
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 With cross-checks and a citable version
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
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. 101 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.
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.