Skip to content
worldfires
US · United States · →

North Complex, August 2020 Plumas, Butte

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2020, 22:01 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2020 in Plumas, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 128,093 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 7th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 4 in United States in 2020, of 441.

Burnt area
128,093ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
17 Aug 2020 – 17 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
17 Aug
2020
Heat detections
16,516
in a single hotspot: 1,782 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug17 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1718

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
56km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,778 ha in 2017, 1,859 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Plumas where it started
    67,406 ha reached on 18 Aug
    10.0 %
  2. Butte
    60,553 ha reached on 17 Aug
    14 %

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)
14 Aug 35.7 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Aug 37.3 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Aug 35.3 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Aug 37.9 °C 15 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Aug after 36.1 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Aug after 34.5 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Aug after 32.8 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Aug after 32.7 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Aug after 33.3 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Aug after 34.2 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Aug after 32.8 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Aug after 30.7 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Aug after 30.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Aug after 30.7 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug after 33.3 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Aug after 32.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Aug after 32.8 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug after 31.8 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept after 34.7 °C 11 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
2 Sept after 31.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Sept after 32.9 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2020
After · 24 Aug 2020

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 · 16,516Every 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 North Complex fire last?
It burned between 17 August 2020 and 17 August 2020: 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 128,093 hectares (1,280.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Plumas (67,406 ha, 10.0 %); Butte (60,553 ha, 14 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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

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.