How long did the Mormon fire last?

It burned between 15 May 2016 and 15 May 2016: 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 3,193 hectares (31.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered Coconino (3,180 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 81 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.

US · United States · 2016-05-15 → 2016-05-15

Mormon Fire, May 2016 Coconino

Out · last detection 16 May 2016, 19:36 UTC

The fire started on 15 May 2016 in Coconino, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 3,193 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 99th largest in Arizona since 2016 (of 380 with a page). Number 108 in United States in 2016, of 475.

Burnt area: 3,193ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 15 May 2016 – 15 May 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 15 May; 2016
Heat detections: 199; in a single hotspot: 107 MW
Danger at start: 31; High · FWI index
Energy released: 44MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 May15 May

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

30°high

81km/h · peak gust

6%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 8 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Coconino where it started

3,180 ha reached on 16 May

0.1 %

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 May	19.4 °C	15 %	68 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
16 May after	16.1 °C	30 %	55 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 14
17 May after	14.9 °C	31 %	34 km/h	3.8 mm	Very low 2
18 May after	12.9 °C	52 %	30 km/h	6.6 mm	Very low 0
19 May after	19.5 °C	29 %	44 km/h	0.6 mm	Very low 3
20 May after	18.6 °C	23 %	78 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
21 May after	16.6 °C	23 %	81 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
22 May after	17.0 °C	20 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
23 May after	18.1 °C	12 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
24 May after	16.1 °C	18 %	73 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
25 May after	17.5 °C	12 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
26 May after	15.5 °C	22 %	42 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 21
27 May after	18.3 °C	18 %	43 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
28 May after	21.1 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
29 May after	22.5 °C	11 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
30 May after	20.9 °C	13 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
31 May after	23.9 °C	8 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
1 Jun after	26.4 °C	8 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
2 Jun after	28.7 °C	7 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
3 Jun after	30.5 °C	6 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Jun after	30.6 °C	9 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
5 Jun after	30.8 °C	8 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
6 Jun after	29.2 °C	7 %	63 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
7 Jun after	27.8 °C	8 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
8 Jun after	28.8 °C	14 %	48 km/h	1.6 mm	High 30

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 May 2016

After · 22 May 2016

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 · 199Every 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 Mormon fire last?: It burned between 15 May 2016 and 15 May 2016: 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 3,193 hectares (31.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered Coconino (3,180 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 81 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned