How long did the Oak fire last?

It burned between 12 August 2017 and 12 August 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 38,699 hectares (387.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 2 counties: Siskiyou (30,111 ha, 1.8 %); Del Norte (8,701 ha, 3.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.

US · United States · 2017-08-12 → 2017-08-12

Oak Fire, August 2017 Siskiyou, Del Norte

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2017, 21:05 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2017 in Siskiyou, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 38,699 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 29th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 15 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area: 38,699ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 12 Aug 2017 – 12 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 12 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 7,321; in a single hotspot: 544 MW
Danger at start: 46; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 647MW; sum of detected power

Play back 13 Aug 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1213

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

50km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Siskiyou where it started

30,111 ha reached on 5 Aug

1.8 %
Del Norte

8,701 ha reached on 8 Aug

3.3 %

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)
5 Aug	33.5 °C	15 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
6 Aug	33.3 °C	15 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
7 Aug	31.8 °C	24 %	49 km/h	2.3 mm	High 21
8 Aug	32.9 °C	24 %	30 km/h	3.6 mm	Low 10
9 Aug	32.7 °C	24 %	33 km/h	0.4 mm	High 26
10 Aug	31.7 °C	28 %	40 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 21
11 Aug	30.5 °C	35 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 23
12 Aug	29.9 °C	27 %	50 km/h	0.5 mm	High 30
13 Aug after	27.2 °C	36 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
14 Aug after	27.9 °C	31 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 Aug after	29.9 °C	17 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Aug after	33.2 °C	16 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Aug after	35.1 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
18 Aug after	35.7 °C	13 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
19 Aug after	31.7 °C	17 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
20 Aug after	34.0 °C	17 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
21 Aug after	35.0 °C	18 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
22 Aug after	33.2 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
23 Aug after	31.9 °C	21 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
24 Aug after	28.6 °C	34 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
25 Aug after	32.5 °C	25 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
26 Aug after	35.8 °C	11 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
27 Aug after	36.3 °C	10 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
28 Aug after	36.0 °C	13 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
29 Aug after	34.3 °C	19 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Aug 2017

After · 19 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 · 7,321Every 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 Oak fire last?: It burned between 12 August 2017 and 12 August 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 38,699 hectares (387.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 2 counties: Siskiyou (30,111 ha, 1.8 %); Del Norte (8,701 ha, 3.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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

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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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