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Lionshead Fire, August 2020 Marion, Jefferson, Wasco

Out · last detection 9 Oct 2020, 20:47 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2020 in Jefferson, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 55 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 81,960 hectares, spread across 5 counties.

It is the 5th largest in Oregon since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 9 in United States in 2020, of 441.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Whitewater · 2017Srz Little Devil · 2017Bench · 2026Tenino Fire · 2018

Burnt area
81,960ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
≈ 55days
16 Aug 2020 – 9 Oct 2020
Counties hit
5
counties
Started on
16 Aug
2020
Heat detections
15,991
in a single hotspot: 2,007 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
6.8GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug9 Oct
9 Oct 2020

How it evolved, day by day

17 Aug 2020 · 109 MW · 11 18 Aug 2020 · 334 MW · 24 19 Aug 2020 · 1,799 MW · 99 20 Aug 2020 · 572 MW · 13 21 Aug 2020 · 782 MW · 123 22 Aug 2020 · 1,031 MW · 122 23 Aug 2020 · 1,014 MW · 96 24 Aug 2020 · 110 MW · 41 25 Aug 2020 · 2,998 MW · 48 26 Aug 2020 · 2,247 MW · 112 27 Aug 2020 · 1,486 MW · 126 28 Aug 2020 · 1,424 MW · 55 29 Aug 2020 · 2,655 MW · 93 30 Aug 2020 · 2,976 MW · 142 31 Aug 2020 · 935 MW · 84 1 Sept 2020 · 1,527 MW · 85 2 Sept 2020 · 2,173 MW · 78 3 Sept 2020 · 3,312 MW · 115 4 Sept 2020 · 5,640 MW · 152 5 Sept 2020 · 15,795 MW · 339 6 Sept 2020 · 13,178 MW · 421 7 Sept 2020 · 9,243 MW · 452 8 Sept 2020 · 111,165 MW · 3014 9 Sept 2020 · 60,933 MW · 2023 10 Sept 2020 · 29,992 MW · 1839 11 Sept 2020 · 8,724 MW · 1010 12 Sept 2020 · 15,236 MW · 933 13 Sept 2020 · 28,708 MW · 1037 14 Sept 2020 · 10,312 MW · 811 15 Sept 2020 · 4,408 MW · 910 16 Sept 2020 · 2,141 MW · 481 17 Sept 2020 · 2,311 MW · 396 18 Sept 2020 · 390 MW · 179 19 Sept 2020 · 29 MW · 6 20 Sept 2020 · 108 MW · 49 21 Sept 2020 · 114 MW · 59 22 Sept 2020 · 64 MW · 31 23 Sept 2020 · 152 MW · 17 24 Sept 2020 · 25 MW · 15 28 Sept 2020 · 24 MW · 3 29 Sept 2020 · 19 MW · 3 30 Sept 2020 · 86 MW · 23 1 Oct 2020 · 87 MW · 34 2 Oct 2020 · 190 MW · 36 3 Oct 2020 · 123 MW · 28 4 Oct 2020 · 271 MW · 45 5 Oct 2020 · 235 MW · 43 6 Oct 2020 · 160 MW · 28 7 Oct 2020 · 277 MW · 45 8 Oct 2020 · 302 MW · 38 9 Oct 2020 · 150 MW · 24
17 Aug 25 Aug 2 Sept 8 Sept 10 Sept 18 Sept 29 Sept 7 Oct

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
68km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.9 mm on 10 Oct.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,264 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 52% of the area of London (820 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each county

  1. Marion
    37,008 ha reached on 8 Sept
    12 %
  2. Jefferson where it started
    28,469 ha reached on 17 Aug
    6.1 %
  3. Wasco
    11,292 ha reached on 13 Sept
    1.8 %
  4. Linn
    4,883 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.8 %
  5. Clackamas
    195 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.0 %

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 2020
Built-up area8.0 ha
Residents≈ 400

Inside the perimeter there were about 8.0 hectares of built-up land and about 400 residents (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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
16 Aug 33.0 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 50
17 Aug 34.3 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Aug 32.6 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Aug 31.0 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Aug 29.2 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Aug 25.1 °C 35 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Aug 26.6 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Aug 30.8 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Aug 28.4 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug 28.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Aug 28.6 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Aug 27.5 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Aug 30.3 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Aug 25.5 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Aug 24.0 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug 22.7 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept 32.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept 32.9 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept 34.0 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 34.0 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Sept 30.2 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
6 Sept 33.6 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Sept 24.5 °C 19 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
8 Sept 17.6 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Sept 24.9 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Sept 27.4 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept 27.0 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Sept 25.8 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept 27.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Sept 25.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept 23.4 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Sept 25.6 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept 23.6 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept 17.0 °C 47 % 33 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 5
19 Sept 18.8 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
20 Sept 22.7 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Sept 23.4 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Sept 22.8 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Sept 23.5 °C 30 % 62 km/h 3.5 mm Moderate 13
24 Sept 17.7 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 19
25 Sept 12.9 °C 73 % 45 km/h 5.2 mm Very low 1
26 Sept 15.7 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
27 Sept 19.2 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
28 Sept 23.1 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Sept 29.1 °C 4 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Sept 26.7 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Oct 27.8 °C 11 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Oct 29.5 °C 13 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Oct 26.4 °C 12 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Oct 22.2 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Oct 25.5 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Oct 28.3 °C 6 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Oct 25.8 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Oct 22.3 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Oct 23.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Oct after 12.6 °C 56 % 53 km/h 17.9 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2020
After · 16 Oct 2020

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 · 15,991Every 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 Lionshead Fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (16 August 2020). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 9 October 2020 (55 days from 16 August 2020), 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 81,960 hectares (819.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 5 counties: Marion (37,008 ha, 12 %); Jefferson (28,469 ha, 6.1 %); Wasco (11,292 ha, 1.8 %); Linn (4,883 ha, 0.8 %); Clackamas (195 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

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

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: MTBS (US Geological Survey and US Forest Service), official; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • 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. 15,991 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.