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Pier Fire, August 2017 Tulare

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2017, 20:45 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2017 in Tulare, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 14,818 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 73th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 53 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area
14,818ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
29 Aug 2017 – 29 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
29 Aug
2017
Heat detections
1,799
in a single hotspot: 244 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug29 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2930

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
52km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 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

  1. Tulare where it started
    14,808 ha reached on 29 Aug
    1.2 %

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)
29 Aug 31.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Aug after 30.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Aug after 30.5 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept after 31.9 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 39
2 Sept after 32.8 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
3 Sept after 31.1 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.9 mm High 33
4 Sept after 30.2 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Sept after 24.7 °C 32 % 35 km/h 3.6 mm Very low 5
6 Sept after 25.6 °C 40 % 36 km/h 1.4 mm Low 8
7 Sept after 24.5 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
8 Sept after 23.9 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
9 Sept after 23.6 °C 38 % 32 km/h 3.6 mm Very low 4
10 Sept after 27.7 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
11 Sept after 28.1 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Sept after 25.1 °C 46 % 35 km/h 2.2 mm Low 5
13 Sept after 22.5 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 12
14 Sept after 18.5 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
15 Sept after 19.1 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
16 Sept after 20.9 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 15
17 Sept after 21.8 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Sept after 22.0 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Sept after 18.7 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
20 Sept after 19.1 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 Sept after 12.6 °C 48 % 47 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 0
22 Sept after 12.6 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
23 Sept after 13.4 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
24 Sept after 17.1 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
25 Sept after 18.9 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
26 Sept after 19.8 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
27 Sept after 21.6 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Sept after 22.1 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
29 Sept after 22.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 Sept after 19.9 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Oct after 18.6 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Oct after 16.2 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Oct after 15.6 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Oct after 17.7 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Oct after 18.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Oct after 23.0 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Oct after 23.0 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Oct after 19.7 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Oct after 20.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Oct after 20.2 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Oct after 18.5 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Oct after 15.8 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Oct after 16.5 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Oct after 20.8 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Oct after 22.2 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Oct after 23.0 °C 7 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Oct after 22.2 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Oct after 20.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
19 Oct after 18.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Oct after 11.6 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.6 mm High 23
21 Oct after 14.3 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Oct after 19.9 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
23 Oct after 24.8 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Oct after 25.9 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Oct after 23.9 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Oct after 23.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Aug 2017
After · 5 Sept 2017

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 · 1,799Every 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 Pier fire last?
It burned between 29 August 2017 and 29 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 14,818 hectares (148.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Tulare (14,808 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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

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.