Skip to content
worldfires
US · United States · →

Kittitas fire, July 2017 Yakima, Kittitas

Out · last detection 21 Jul 2017, 21:38 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2017 in Kittitas, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 11,021 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 36th largest in Washington since 2016 (of 285 with a page). Number 75 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area
11,021ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
20 Jul 2017 – 20 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
20 Jul
2017
Heat detections
148
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul20 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2021

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
50km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 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. Yakima
    9,353 ha reached on 20 Jul
    0.8 %
  2. Kittitas where it started
    1,644 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.3 %

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)
18 Jul 33.5 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jul 34.1 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Jul 29.9 °C 17 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Jul after 30.8 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Jul after 36.2 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Jul after 36.7 °C 19 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Jul after 32.9 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jul after 35.7 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Jul after 37.4 °C 10 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
27 Jul after 33.8 °C 18 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
28 Jul after 35.3 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Jul after 36.5 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
30 Jul after 36.9 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
31 Jul after 36.9 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2017
After · 27 Jul 2017

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 · 148Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kittitas fire last?
It burned between 20 July 2017 and 20 July 2017: 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 11,021 hectares (110.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Yakima (9,353 ha, 0.8 %); Kittitas (1,644 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.