How long did the Minerva 5 fire last?

It burned between 29 July 2017 and 29 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 1,840 hectares (18.4 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered Plumas (1,838 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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 · 2017-07-29 → 2017-07-29

Minerva 5 Fire, July 2017 Plumas

Out · last detection 30 Jul 2017, 22:08 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2017 in Plumas, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,840 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 214th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 273 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area: 1,840ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 29 Jul 2017 – 29 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 29 Jul; 2017
Heat detections: 474; in a single hotspot: 77 MW
Danger at start: 46; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 545MW; sum of detected power

Play back 30 Jul 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul29 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2930

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

51km/h · peak gust

11%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 21 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Plumas where it started

1,838 ha reached on 29 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)
29 Jul	31.4 °C	12 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
30 Jul after	33.0 °C	12 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
31 Jul after	34.3 °C	11 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
1 Aug after	35.7 °C	11 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
2 Aug after	34.6 °C	14 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
3 Aug after	34.0 °C	13 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
4 Aug after	31.6 °C	15 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
5 Aug after	29.1 °C	25 %	42 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 41
6 Aug after	26.4 °C	29 %	40 km/h	2.8 mm	Low 11
7 Aug after	27.2 °C	28 %	39 km/h	2.9 mm	Low 9
8 Aug after	28.2 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.8 mm	High 22
9 Aug after	28.2 °C	22 %	37 km/h	0.5 mm	High 29
10 Aug after	29.1 °C	20 %	35 km/h	0.4 mm	High 33
11 Aug after	30.0 °C	18 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
12 Aug after	29.2 °C	23 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
13 Aug after	28.7 °C	13 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
14 Aug after	24.6 °C	32 %	41 km/h	0.7 mm	High 25
15 Aug after	25.7 °C	27 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
16 Aug after	29.2 °C	19 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
17 Aug after	31.8 °C	14 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
18 Aug after	31.4 °C	14 %	41 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 42
19 Aug after	29.8 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
20 Aug after	30.1 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 38
21 Aug after	28.6 °C	18 %	37 km/h	1.1 mm	High 28

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Jul 2017

After · 5 Aug 2017

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 · 474Every 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 Minerva 5 fire last?: It burned between 29 July 2017 and 29 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 1,840 hectares (18.4 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered Plumas (1,838 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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