Sand Point Fire, June 2017 Elmore, Owyhee
The fire started on 28 June 2017 in Elmore, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 3,136 hectares, spread across 2 counties.
It is the 105th largest in Idaho since 2016 (of 379 with a page). Number 199 in United States in 2017, of 619.
- Burnt area
- 3,136ha
- official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
- Duration
- 1day
- 28 Jun 2017 – 28 Jun 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 28 Jun
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 41
- in a single hotspot: 101 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 424MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone 14 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
-
Elmore where it started2,325 ha reached on 28 Jun0.3 %
-
792 ha reached on 28 Jun0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jun | 30.4 °C | 10 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 29 Jun after | 28.9 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 30 Jun after | 32.5 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Jul after | 35.8 °C | 8 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 2 Jul after | 37.7 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 3 Jul after | 37.4 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 4 Jul after | 40.0 °C | 8 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Jul after | 38.9 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 6 Jul after | 39.5 °C | 7 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 7 Jul after | 41.1 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 8 Jul after | 40.2 °C | 9 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 41Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,499 haCentennial OwyheeJune 2017 · 1 day · 12 km away
- 16,030 haLoveridge OwyheeJuly 2017 · 1 day · 21 km away
- 3,744 haPot Hole OwyheeAugust 2018 · 1 day · 21 km away
- 3,356 haSailor Cap OwyheeMay 2026 · 1 day · 21 km away
- 5,740 haBerry ElmoreSeptember 2024 · 1 day · 27 km away
- 27,439 haPot Hole OwyheeAugust 2019 · 1 day · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sand Point fire last?
- It burned between 28 June 2017 and 28 June 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 3,136 hectares (31.4 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
- Which counties burned?
- The fire entered 2 counties: Elmore (2,325 ha, 0.3 %); Owyhee (792 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, class Extreme.
- 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
- NIFC · National Interagency Fire Center ↗
- InciWeb · Incident Information System ↗
- MTBS · Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity ↗
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.
Report an error
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.