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Planada Fire, June 2018 Merced, Mariposa

Out · last detection 16 Jun 2018, 10:27 UTC

The fire started on 15 June 2018 in Merced, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,884 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 212th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 210 in United States in 2018, of 511.

The power measured by the satellite is low (2.9 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
1,884ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
15 Jun 2018 – 15 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
15 Jun
2018
Heat detections
8
in a single hotspot: 3 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
11MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jun15 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

16

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
34km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 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. Merced where it started
    1,344 ha
    0.3 %
  2. Mariposa
    537 ha reached on 16 Jun
    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)
15 Jun 33.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jun after 31.5 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Jun after 25.4 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jun after 30.5 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Jun after 33.9 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Jun after 35.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Jun after 35.0 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Jun after 36.9 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Jun after 38.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Jun after 37.9 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Jun after 34.1 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jun after 36.3 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jun 2018
After · 22 Jun 2018

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 · 8Every 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 Planada fire last?
It burned between 15 June 2018 and 15 June 2018: 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 1,884 hectares (18.8 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Merced (1,344 ha, 0.3 %); Mariposa (537 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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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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.

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.