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Red Salmon Complex, July 2020 Humboldt, Trinity, Siskiyou

Out · last detection 29 Jul 2020, 21:36 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2020 in Trinity, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 59,662 hectares, spread across 3 counties.

It is the 17th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 17 in United States in 2020, of 441.

Burnt area
59,662ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
28 Jul 2020 – 28 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
3
counties
Started on
28 Jul
2020
Heat detections
13,699
in a single hotspot: 694 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul28 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2829

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
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 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. Humboldt
    22,007 ha reached on 27 Jul
    2.4 %
  2. Trinity where it started
    21,661 ha reached on 27 Jul
    2.6 %
  3. Siskiyou
    16,251 ha reached on 28 Jul
    1.0 %

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)
27 Jul 32.4 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jul 33.2 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Jul after 32.4 °C 15 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Jul after 31.8 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Jul after 28.1 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Aug after 27.2 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Aug after 27.3 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug after 25.8 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Aug after 26.1 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Aug after 24.0 °C 45 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Aug after 21.4 °C 45 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
7 Aug after 28.1 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Aug after 29.8 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug after 34.2 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Aug after 34.7 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Aug after 30.2 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Aug after 27.9 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Aug after 31.5 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Aug after 35.7 °C 12 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2020
After · 4 Aug 2020

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 · 13,699Every 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 Red Salmon Complex fire last?
It burned between 28 July 2020 and 28 July 2020: 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 59,662 hectares (596.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 3 counties: Humboldt (22,007 ha, 2.4 %); Trinity (21,661 ha, 2.6 %); Siskiyou (16,251 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 52 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.