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Parks Fire, August 2022 Okanogan

Out · last detection 22 Oct 2022, 10:31 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2022 in Okanogan, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 63 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 14,007 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 31th largest in Washington since 2016 (of 285 with a page). Number 43 in United States in 2022, of 493.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ptarmigan · 2026Okanagan-Similkameen H · 2026Diamond Creek · 2017Okanagan-Similkameen G · 2017

Burnt area
14,007ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
≈ 63days
21 Aug 2022 – 22 Oct 2022
Counties hit
1
counties
Started on
21 Aug
2022
Heat detections
3,440
in a single hotspot: 633 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
1.1GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug22 Oct
22 Oct 2022

How it evolved, day by day

23 Aug 2022 · 4 MW · 1 24 Aug 2022 · 7 MW · 1 29 Aug 2022 · 23 MW · 2 30 Aug 2022 · 279 MW · 5 31 Aug 2022 · 538 MW · 32 1 Sept 2022 · 44 MW · 23 2 Sept 2022 · 6,273 MW · 89 3 Sept 2022 · 1,602 MW · 209 4 Sept 2022 · 323 MW · 112 5 Sept 2022 · 2,167 MW · 98 6 Sept 2022 · 4,567 MW · 157 7 Sept 2022 · 8,826 MW · 269 8 Sept 2022 · 8,018 MW · 463 9 Sept 2022 · 1,483 MW · 202 10 Sept 2022 · 2,714 MW · 277 11 Sept 2022 · 4,670 MW · 396 12 Sept 2022 · 39 MW · 7 13 Sept 2022 · 143 MW · 62 19 Sept 2022 · 6 MW · 1 20 Sept 2022 · 16 MW · 2 21 Sept 2022 · 8 MW · 3 22 Sept 2022 · 107 MW · 7 24 Sept 2022 · 67 MW · 5 25 Sept 2022 · 164 MW · 15 26 Sept 2022 · 428 MW · 26 27 Sept 2022 · 702 MW · 51 28 Sept 2022 · 16 MW · 9 30 Sept 2022 · 41 MW · 4 1 Oct 2022 · 13 MW · 8 2 Oct 2022 · 55 MW · 27 3 Oct 2022 · 66 MW · 18 4 Oct 2022 · 199 MW · 35 5 Oct 2022 · 76 MW · 25 6 Oct 2022 · 511 MW · 23 7 Oct 2022 · 63 MW · 23 8 Oct 2022 · 75 MW · 39 9 Oct 2022 · 27 MW · 16 10 Oct 2022 · 226 MW · 22 11 Oct 2022 · 119 MW · 31 12 Oct 2022 · 168 MW · 36 13 Oct 2022 · 353 MW · 51 14 Oct 2022 · 219 MW · 31 15 Oct 2022 · 92 MW · 32 16 Oct 2022 · 1,971 MW · 103 17 Oct 2022 · 703 MW · 88 18 Oct 2022 · 2,222 MW · 151 19 Oct 2022 · 937 MW · 129 20 Oct 2022 · 120 MW · 23 22 Oct 2022 · 1 MW · 1
23 Aug 3 Sept 7 Sept 10 Sept 22 Sept 1 Oct 8 Oct 15 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
64km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.1 mm on 24 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.8% of the area of London (140 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each county

  1. Okanogan where it started
    6,852 ha reached on 23 Aug
    0.5 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
21 Aug 23.9 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Aug 23.3 °C 33 % 34 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 13
23 Aug 21.3 °C 37 % 27 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 3
24 Aug 23.4 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
25 Aug 23.3 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 14
26 Aug 18.6 °C 57 % 45 km/h 1.3 mm Low 7
27 Aug 11.7 °C 60 % 43 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 4
28 Aug 17.9 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
29 Aug 24.1 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
30 Aug 26.8 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Aug 26.0 °C 28 % 48 km/h 2.1 mm Low 10
1 Sept 24.4 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
2 Sept 27.4 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Sept 22.6 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
4 Sept 18.9 °C 45 % 54 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
5 Sept 16.0 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
6 Sept 23.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
7 Sept 18.1 °C 29 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Sept 15.8 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
9 Sept 18.7 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Sept 23.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Sept 21.8 °C 36 % 48 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 17
12 Sept 19.5 °C 43 % 28 km/h 4.9 mm Very low 2
13 Sept 17.2 °C 53 % 29 km/h 5.8 mm Very low 0
14 Sept 13.7 °C 64 % 23 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 0
15 Sept 11.8 °C 65 % 29 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 0
16 Sept 8.4 °C 75 % 43 km/h 3.4 mm Very low 0
17 Sept 12.1 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
18 Sept 15.8 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
19 Sept 14.9 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
20 Sept 16.5 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
21 Sept 18.5 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
22 Sept 13.1 °C 46 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Sept 10.4 °C 68 % 28 km/h 0.5 mm Low 6
24 Sept 18.5 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
25 Sept 21.6 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
26 Sept 22.2 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
27 Sept 22.7 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 Sept 15.6 °C 54 % 25 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 2
29 Sept 12.1 °C 67 % 31 km/h 0.8 mm Very low 3
30 Sept 17.4 °C 47 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
1 Oct 19.8 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
2 Oct 19.6 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
3 Oct 21.0 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
4 Oct 18.2 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
5 Oct 18.6 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
6 Oct 20.2 °C 33 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
7 Oct 20.4 °C 32 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
8 Oct 19.5 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Oct 18.5 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
10 Oct 13.9 °C 53 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
11 Oct 15.7 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
12 Oct 17.7 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
13 Oct 19.2 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Oct 17.8 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Oct 18.4 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
16 Oct 19.5 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 Oct 18.4 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
18 Oct 17.4 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Oct 15.8 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Oct 7.9 °C 71 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm Low 10
21 Oct 3.5 °C 82 % 36 km/h 5.1 mm Very low 0
22 Oct 3.4 °C 46 % 37 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 0
23 Oct after 4.2 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 2
24 Oct after 2.1 °C 72 % 50 km/h 12.1 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Aug 2022
After · 29 Oct 2022

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 21 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 14 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak14 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1020 µg/m³
Optical depth0.42
192021222324
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 · 3,440Every 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 Parks Fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (21 August 2022). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 22 October 2022 (63 days from 21 August 2022), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 14,007 hectares (140.1 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Okanogan (6,852 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
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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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: MTBS (US Geological Survey and US Forest Service), official.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 3,440 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.