How long did the Pinnacle Mountain fire last?

It burned between 9 November 2016 and 9 November 2016: 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 3,185 hectares (31.8 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 3 counties: Greenville (1,776 ha, 0.9 %); Pickens (1,306 ha, 1.0 %); Transylvania (114 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 23.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.

US · United States · 2016-11-09 → 2016-11-09

Pinnacle Mountain Fire, November 2016 Greenville, Pickens, Transylvania

Out · last detection 10 Nov 2016, 18:57 UTC

The fire started on 9 November 2016 in Pickens, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 3,185 hectares, spread across 3 counties.

It is the 2th largest in South Carolina since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 110 in United States in 2016, of 475.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 3,185ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 9 Nov 2016 – 9 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; counties
Started on: 9 Nov; 2016
Heat detections: 291; in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Energy released: 62MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Nov9 Nov

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

24°high

51km/h · peak gust

9%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 28 Nov.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Greenville

1,776 ha reached on 20 Nov

0.9 %
Pickens where it started

1,306 ha reached on 10 Nov

1.0 %
Transylvania

114 ha reached on 26 Nov

0.1 %

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)
9 Nov	17.6 °C	30 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
10 Nov after	19.2 °C	19 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
11 Nov after	20.7 °C	14 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
12 Nov after	13.5 °C	36 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
13 Nov after	11.4 °C	30 %	21 km/h	0.9 mm	Low 11
14 Nov after	18.4 °C	28 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
15 Nov after	17.1 °C	28 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
16 Nov after	20.0 °C	26 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
17 Nov after	21.6 °C	22 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
18 Nov after	23.8 °C	20 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
19 Nov after	15.1 °C	25 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
20 Nov after	12.0 °C	12 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
21 Nov after	14.8 °C	9 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
22 Nov after	13.0 °C	14 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
23 Nov after	13.5 °C	22 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
24 Nov after	19.8 °C	49 %	38 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 21
25 Nov after	20.1 °C	35 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
26 Nov after	15.5 °C	17 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
27 Nov after	10.9 °C	32 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
28 Nov after	11.1 °C	52 %	40 km/h	2.9 mm	Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Nov 2016

After · 16 Nov 2016

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 · 291Every 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

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Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pinnacle Mountain fire last?: It burned between 9 November 2016 and 9 November 2016: 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 3,185 hectares (31.8 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 3 counties: Greenville (1,776 ha, 0.9 %); Pickens (1,306 ha, 1.0 %); Transylvania (114 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 23.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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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