How long did the Paddock fire last?

It burned between 6 August 2024 and 6 August 2024: 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 75,556 hectares (755.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 3 counties: Washington (37,222 ha, 9.8 %); Gem (27,166 ha, 19 %); Payette (11,032 ha, 10 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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 · 2024-08-06 → 2024-08-06

Paddock Fire, August 2024 Washington, Gem, Payette

Out · last detection 7 Aug 2024, 20:35 UTC

The fire started on 6 August 2024 in Washington, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 75,556 hectares, spread across 3 counties.

It is the 2th largest in Idaho since 2016 (of 379 with a page). Number 5 in United States in 2024, of 371.

Burnt area: 75,556ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 6 Aug 2024 – 6 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit: 3; counties
Started on: 6 Aug; 2024
Heat detections: 1,340; in a single hotspot: 321 MW
Danger at start: 52; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 15.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 7 Aug 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Aug6 Aug

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

34°high

49km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 15 Aug.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 482 ha in 2018, 3,779 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

Washington where it started

37,222 ha reached on 6 Aug

9.8 %
Gem

27,166 ha reached on 7 Aug

19 %
Payette

11,032 ha reached on 6 Aug

10 %

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)
6 Aug	33.5 °C	11 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
7 Aug after	30.2 °C	10 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
8 Aug after	29.2 °C	12 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
9 Aug after	32.1 °C	12 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
10 Aug after	30.9 °C	13 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
11 Aug after	31.0 °C	13 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
12 Aug after	30.5 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
13 Aug after	26.9 °C	22 %	41 km/h	0.4 mm	Extreme 50
14 Aug after	27.2 °C	16 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
15 Aug after	26.1 °C	25 %	40 km/h	1.4 mm	High 28

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 30 Jul 2024

After · 13 Aug 2024

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 8 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 144 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 100: 6.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak144 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM10207 µg/m³

Optical depth1.43

WHO 15

456789

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,340Every 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 Paddock fire last?: It burned between 6 August 2024 and 6 August 2024: 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 75,556 hectares (755.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 3 counties: Washington (37,222 ha, 9.8 %); Gem (27,166 ha, 19 %); Payette (11,032 ha, 10 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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 ↗

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