How long did the Sheep fire last?

It burned between 17 August 2020 and 17 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 11,799 hectares (118.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 2 counties: Lassen (8,847 ha, 0.7 %); Plumas (2,960 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

US · United States · 2020-08-17 → 2020-08-17

Sheep Fire, August 2020 Lassen, Plumas

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2020, 22:02 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2020 in Lassen, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 11,799 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 87th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 60 in United States in 2020, of 441.

Burnt area: 11,799ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 17 Aug 2020 – 17 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 17 Aug; 2020
Heat detections: 1,955; in a single hotspot: 428 MW
Danger at start: 33; High · FWI index
Energy released: 5.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 18 Aug 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug17 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1718

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

53km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 51 ha in 2016.

51 ha Willard fire, September 2016 1,144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Lassen where it started

8,847 ha reached on 19 Aug

0.7 %
Plumas

2,960 ha reached on 17 Aug

0.4 %

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)
17 Aug	27.2 °C	24 %	39 km/h	0.1 mm	High 33
18 Aug after	29.8 °C	20 %	42 km/h	0.4 mm	High 38
19 Aug after	27.4 °C	11 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
20 Aug after	27.5 °C	8 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
21 Aug after	26.5 °C	10 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
22 Aug after	28.9 °C	11 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
23 Aug after	29.1 °C	16 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
24 Aug after	25.3 °C	24 %	50 km/h	1.8 mm	Moderate 18
25 Aug after	25.3 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	High 28
26 Aug after	25.8 °C	26 %	47 km/h	0.2 mm	High 31
27 Aug after	26.5 °C	18 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	High 32
28 Aug after	27.9 °C	13 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
29 Aug after	29.1 °C	12 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
30 Aug after	28.4 °C	17 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
31 Aug after	28.2 °C	10 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
1 Sept after	26.4 °C	13 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
2 Sept after	30.0 °C	12 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
3 Sept after	32.1 °C	14 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
4 Sept after	32.6 °C	12 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
5 Sept after	32.4 °C	9 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
6 Sept after	31.4 °C	10 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
7 Sept after	31.3 °C	8 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
8 Sept after	18.8 °C	12 %	71 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
9 Sept after	21.4 °C	7 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
10 Sept after	23.7 °C	10 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
11 Sept after	25.6 °C	13 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
12 Sept after	27.1 °C	13 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
13 Sept after	26.6 °C	12 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
14 Sept after	24.9 °C	16 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
15 Sept after	25.3 °C	14 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
16 Sept after	24.9 °C	13 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 10 Aug 2020

After · 24 Aug 2020

Before After

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 · 1,955Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sheep fire last?: It burned between 17 August 2020 and 17 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 11,799 hectares (118.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 2 counties: Lassen (8,847 ha, 0.7 %); Plumas (2,960 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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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.

Where it burned