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Ross Fork Fire, 14 August 2022 Blaine, Camas, Elmore

Out · last detection 4 Oct 2022, 09:30 UTC

The fire started on 14 August 2022 in Blaine, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 52 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 16,467 hectares, spread across 3 counties.

It is the 22th largest in Idaho since 2016 (of 379 with a page). Number 35 in United States in 2022, of 493.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bible Back · 2018

Burnt area
16,467ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
≈ 52days
14 Aug 2022 – 4 Oct 2022
Counties hit
3
counties
Started on
14 Aug
2022
Heat detections
2,979
in a single hotspot: 450 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.4GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug4 Oct
4 Oct 2022

How it evolved, day by day

14 Aug 2022 · 27 MW · 1 15 Aug 2022 · 88 MW · 13 16 Aug 2022 · 714 MW · 12 17 Aug 2022 · 85 MW · 14 18 Aug 2022 · 16 MW · 5 19 Aug 2022 · 8 MW · 5 20 Aug 2022 · 6 MW · 3 21 Aug 2022 · 2 MW · 2 22 Aug 2022 · 139 MW · 11 23 Aug 2022 · 130 MW · 17 24 Aug 2022 · 57 MW · 21 25 Aug 2022 · 67 MW · 16 26 Aug 2022 · 558 MW · 35 27 Aug 2022 · 73 MW · 8 28 Aug 2022 · 65 MW · 11 29 Aug 2022 · 271 MW · 11 30 Aug 2022 · 383 MW · 45 31 Aug 2022 · 1,577 MW · 34 1 Sept 2022 · 6,582 MW · 95 2 Sept 2022 · 1,414 MW · 95 3 Sept 2022 · 299 MW · 60 4 Sept 2022 · 5,919 MW · 279 5 Sept 2022 · 23,586 MW · 734 6 Sept 2022 · 7,896 MW · 477 7 Sept 2022 · 5,649 MW · 320 8 Sept 2022 · 2,070 MW · 210 9 Sept 2022 · 1,386 MW · 190 10 Sept 2022 · 915 MW · 104 11 Sept 2022 · 517 MW · 72 12 Sept 2022 · 78 MW · 57 13 Sept 2022 · 15 MW · 5 19 Sept 2022 · 3 MW · 1 20 Sept 2022 · 8 MW · 2 21 Sept 2022 · 2 MW · 1 22 Sept 2022 · 1 MW · 1 24 Sept 2022 · 4 MW · 1 25 Sept 2022 · 4 MW · 1 26 Sept 2022 · 23 MW · 1 27 Sept 2022 · 8 MW · 2 28 Sept 2022 · 5 MW · 5 2 Oct 2022 · 1 MW · 1 4 Oct 2022 · 1 MW · 1
14 Aug 20 Aug 26 Aug 1 Sept 5 Sept 7 Sept 13 Sept 25 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
69km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 10% of the area of London (165 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each county

  1. Blaine where it started
    12,959 ha reached on 1 Sept
    1.9 %
  2. Camas
    3,554 ha reached on 14 Aug
    1.3 %
  3. Elmore
    80 ha reached on 5 Sept
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area0.13 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.13 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
14 Aug 23.7 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
15 Aug 24.4 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
16 Aug 26.3 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Aug 27.0 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Aug 24.2 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
19 Aug 20.7 °C 33 % 41 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 12
20 Aug 18.4 °C 47 % 23 km/h 1.7 mm Low 5
21 Aug 21.5 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.7 mm Low 11
22 Aug 21.9 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 20
23 Aug 22.7 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 21
24 Aug 20.2 °C 26 % 41 km/h 1.9 mm Low 10
25 Aug 22.2 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
26 Aug 21.3 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Aug 18.3 °C 29 % 65 km/h 0.5 mm High 33
28 Aug 19.9 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Aug 22.9 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Aug 24.5 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
31 Aug 26.4 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Sept 24.9 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Sept 25.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Sept 25.4 °C 16 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Sept 25.5 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept 25.1 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept 26.1 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Sept 24.5 °C 16 % 58 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 41
8 Sept 19.3 °C 10 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Sept 16.5 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Sept 17.6 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Sept 21.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Sept 19.2 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 11.7 °C 50 % 35 km/h 12.6 mm Very low 0
14 Sept 14.3 °C 44 % 37 km/h 1.9 mm Very low 2
15 Sept 11.4 °C 55 % 34 km/h 5.3 mm Very low 0
16 Sept 13.0 °C 35 % 44 km/h 1.0 mm Very low 3
17 Sept 11.0 °C 49 % 46 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 4
18 Sept 13.4 °C 43 % 59 km/h 1.3 mm Low 5
19 Sept 16.5 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
20 Sept 17.1 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
21 Sept 13.2 °C 32 % 69 km/h 2.9 mm Low 6
22 Sept 6.7 °C 71 % 50 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 1
23 Sept 14.7 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
24 Sept 18.3 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
25 Sept 19.3 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
26 Sept 18.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
27 Sept 18.4 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
28 Sept 18.1 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Sept 10.5 °C 40 % 50 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 13
30 Sept 9.6 °C 41 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm Low 10
1 Oct 10.4 °C 33 % 19 km/h 0.8 mm Low 8
2 Oct 11.4 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.5 mm Low 10
3 Oct 15.7 °C 28 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
4 Oct 16.0 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
5 Oct after 16.6 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
6 Oct after 17.3 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
7 Oct after 17.4 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
8 Oct after 15.3 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
9 Oct after 15.2 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
10 Oct after 13.9 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
11 Oct after 14.6 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Oct after 16.4 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Oct after 16.3 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Oct after 16.4 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Aug 2022
After · 11 Oct 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 17 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 14 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak14 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1020 µg/m³
Optical depth0.25
121314151617
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 2,979Every 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 Ross Fork Fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (14 August 2022). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 4 October 2022 (52 days from 14 August 2022), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 16,467 hectares (164.7 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 3 counties: Blaine (12,959 ha, 1.9 %); Camas (3,554 ha, 1.3 %); Elmore (80 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 69 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

Report an error
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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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: MTBS (US Geological Survey and US Forest Service), official.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 2,979 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.