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Schaeffer Fire, June 2017 Tulare

Out · last detection 25 Jun 2017, 21:22 UTC

The fire started on 24 June 2017 in Tulare, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 6,514 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 114th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 122 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area
6,514ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
24 Jun 2017 – 24 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
24 Jun
2017
Heat detections
1,328
in a single hotspot: 390 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
427MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jun24 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

25

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
72km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 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. Tulare where it started
    6,503 ha reached on 25 Jun
    0.5 %

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)
24 Jun 31.1 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 45
25 Jun after 31.2 °C 11 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Jun after 27.8 °C 8 % 72 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Jun after 28.3 °C 6 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Jun after 28.3 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Jun after 29.4 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Jun after 30.9 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Jul after 29.8 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Jul after 29.4 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Jul after 30.0 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Jul after 30.7 °C 7 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Jul after 29.9 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Jul after 31.4 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
7 Jul after 33.2 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Jul after 32.6 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 51
9 Jul after 30.4 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Jul after 29.2 °C 22 % 36 km/h 1.6 mm High 22
11 Jul after 26.9 °C 29 % 39 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 14
12 Jul after 29.3 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Jul after 29.2 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
14 Jul after 30.2 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Jul after 31.4 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Jul after 31.5 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Jul after 31.1 °C 17 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jul after 31.0 °C 8 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Jul after 29.3 °C 12 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
20 Jul after 29.3 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Jul after 29.6 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Jul after 31.3 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Jul after 32.5 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 49
24 Jul after 29.8 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jul after 28.7 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Jul after 29.8 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Jul after 30.0 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
28 Jul after 30.9 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jul after 30.5 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Jul after 31.5 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Jul after 31.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Aug after 32.7 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Aug after 29.8 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jun 2017
After · 1 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 · 1,328Every 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 Schaeffer fire last?
It burned between 24 June 2017 and 24 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 6,514 hectares (65.1 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Tulare (6,503 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 72 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.