How long did the Mesa fire last?

It burned between 26 July 2018 and 26 July 2018: 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 13,969 hectares (139.7 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered Adams (13,925 ha, 3.9 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.

US · United States · 2018-07-26 → 2018-07-26

Mesa Fire, July 2018 Adams

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2018, 20:41 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2018 in Adams, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 13,969 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 27th largest in Idaho since 2016 (of 379 with a page). Number 51 in United States in 2018, of 511.

Burnt area: 13,969ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 26 Jul 2018 – 26 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 26 Jul; 2018
Heat detections: 1,151; in a single hotspot: 451 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 7.9GW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul26 Jul

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

36°high

57km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 26 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Adams where it started

13,925 ha reached on 27 Jul

3.9 %

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)
26 Jul	32.0 °C	16 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Jul after	31.3 °C	15 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
28 Jul after	31.8 °C	14 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
29 Jul after	31.8 °C	16 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
30 Jul after	32.4 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
31 Jul after	31.9 °C	15 %	46 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 45
1 Aug after	32.9 °C	20 %	42 km/h	0.6 mm	Very high 39
2 Aug after	30.4 °C	14 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
3 Aug after	26.1 °C	16 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
4 Aug after	26.0 °C	17 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
5 Aug after	26.5 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
6 Aug after	29.4 °C	18 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
7 Aug after	31.3 °C	17 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
8 Aug after	34.0 °C	15 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
9 Aug after	36.2 °C	13 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
10 Aug after	36.2 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
11 Aug after	33.2 °C	15 %	57 km/h	0.4 mm	Extreme 54
12 Aug after	27.2 °C	17 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
13 Aug after	28.9 °C	17 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
14 Aug after	30.3 °C	12 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
15 Aug after	32.2 °C	16 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
16 Aug after	30.9 °C	16 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
17 Aug after	27.9 °C	18 %	44 km/h	1.0 mm	High 34
18 Aug after	28.5 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
19 Aug after	29.2 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
20 Aug after	21.0 °C	37 %	35 km/h	3.4 mm	Low 8
21 Aug after	23.9 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
22 Aug after	23.4 °C	29 %	40 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 21
23 Aug after	26.2 °C	22 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
24 Aug after	23.3 °C	24 %	43 km/h	0.8 mm	High 27
25 Aug after	22.8 °C	24 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Aug after	16.9 °C	44 %	39 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Jul 2018

After · 2 Aug 2018

Before After

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 · 1,151Every 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

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mesa fire last?: It burned between 26 July 2018 and 26 July 2018: 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 13,969 hectares (139.7 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered Adams (13,925 ha, 3.9 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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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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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.

Where it burned