Skip to content
worldfires
US · United States · →

Miles Fire, July 2018 Jackson, Douglas

Out · last detection 17 Jul 2018, 22:08 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2018 in Douglas, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 21,039 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 36th largest in Oregon since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 35 in United States in 2018, of 511.

Burnt area
21,039ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
2days
15 Jul 2018 – 16 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
15 Jul
2018
Heat detections
4,222
in a single hotspot: 432 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
99MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

17

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
49km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 50 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Jackson
    12,715 ha reached on 17 Jul
    1.8 %
  2. Douglas where it started
    8,321 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.6 %

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)
15 Jul 32.8 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Jul 32.8 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Jul after 31.0 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jul after 28.8 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Jul after 25.8 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Jul after 26.9 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Jul after 26.8 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Jul after 31.1 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Jul after 32.0 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Jul after 32.3 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jul after 33.2 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jul after 32.9 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Jul after 31.1 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jul after 30.9 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Jul after 33.9 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jul after 30.6 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Jul after 29.8 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Aug after 29.3 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Aug after 25.2 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2018
After · 23 Jul 2018

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 · 4,222Every 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 Miles fire last?
It burned between 15 July 2018 and 16 July 2018: 2 days, 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 21,039 hectares (210.4 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Jackson (12,715 ha, 1.8 %); Douglas (8,321 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.

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.