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Sands Fire, August 2020 Winkler, Ward

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2020, 20:49 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2020 in Winkler, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 519 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 276th largest in Texas since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 394 in United States in 2020, of 441.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.0 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
519ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
27 Aug 2020 – 27 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
27 Aug
2020
Heat detections
21
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
264MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

27

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
26km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Winkler where it started
    398 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.2 %
  2. Ward
    122 ha reached on 27 Aug
    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)
27 Aug 38.1 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Aug after 40.3 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Aug after 39.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
30 Aug after 39.8 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
31 Aug after 37.7 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
1 Sept after 38.1 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
2 Sept after 35.0 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
3 Sept after 37.4 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
4 Sept after 35.4 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Sept after 31.7 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Sept after 34.3 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2020
After · 3 Sept 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 · 21Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sands fire last?
It burned between 27 August 2020 and 27 August 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 519 hectares (5.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Winkler (398 ha, 0.2 %); Ward (122 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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

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.