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Lit Ranch Fire, February 2017 Oldham, Potter, Moore

Out · last detection 24 Feb 2017, 19:10 UTC

The fire started on 23 February 2017 in Oldham, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 5,557 hectares, spread across 4 counties.

It is the 31th largest in Texas since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 137 in United States in 2017, of 619.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
5,557ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
23 Feb 2017 – 23 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
4
counties
Started on
23 Feb
2017
Heat detections
5
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
19MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Feb23 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

24

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

The weather it burned in

23°high
76km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 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. Oldham where it started
    4,558 ha reached on 24 Feb
    1.2 %
  2. Potter
    648 ha reached on 24 Feb
    0.3 %
  3. Moore
    338 ha
    0.1 %
  4. Hartley
    22 ha
    0.0 %

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)
23 Feb 23.3 °C 10 % 76 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Feb after 7.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 Feb after 12.6 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
26 Feb after 14.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
27 Feb after 20.3 °C 12 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Feb after 22.2 °C 10 % 88 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Mar after 11.9 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Mar after 14.9 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Mar after 19.0 °C 13 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Mar after 23.3 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Mar after 25.7 °C 13 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Mar after 22.5 °C 10 % 83 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Feb 2017
After · 2 Mar 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 · 5Every 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 Lit Ranch fire last?
It burned between 23 February 2017 and 23 February 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 5,557 hectares (55.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 4 counties: Oldham (4,558 ha, 1.2 %); Potter (648 ha, 0.3 %); Moore (338 ha, 0.1 %); Hartley (22 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.3 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 76 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
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.

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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.