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Powerline Fire, July 2017 Nez Perce, Lewis, Idaho

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2017, 21:31 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2017 in Nez Perce, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 19,133 hectares, spread across 4 counties.

It is the 20th largest in Idaho since 2016 (of 379 with a page). Number 43 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area
19,133ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
15 Jul 2017 – 15 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
4
counties
Started on
15 Jul
2017
Heat detections
547
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
670MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul15 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1516

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
42km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 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. Nez Perce where it started
    18,686 ha reached on 15 Jul
    8.4 %
  2. Lewis
    298 ha reached on 16 Jul
    0.2 %
  3. Idaho
    35 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.0 %
  4. Wallowa
    26 ha
    0.0 %

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 Jul 34.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jul after 29.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jul after 30.3 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Jul after 32.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jul after 33.7 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Jul after 30.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jul after 31.0 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jul after 32.8 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Jul after 36.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Jul after 33.3 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jul after 34.1 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Jul after 34.8 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Jul after 34.8 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Jul after 36.0 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Jul after 35.9 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Jul after 35.4 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Jul after 36.2 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Aug after 35.9 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2017
After · 22 Jul 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 · 547Every 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 Powerline fire last?
It burned between 15 July 2017 and 15 July 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 19,133 hectares (191.3 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 4 counties: Nez Perce (18,686 ha, 8.4 %); Lewis (298 ha, 0.2 %); Idaho (35 ha, 0.0 %); Wallowa (26 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.