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Slate Fire, October 2016 Tulare

Out · last measured on 4 Oct 2016

The fire started on 4 October 2016 in Tulare, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 858 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 311th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 297 in United States in 2016, of 475.

Burnt area
858ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
4 Oct 2016 – 4 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
4 Oct
2016
Heat detections
141
in a single hotspot: 173 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Oct4 Oct

The weather it burned in

19°high
59km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.2 mm on 21 Nov.

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
    859 ha reached on 23 Oct
    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)
4 Oct 12.1 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Oct after 10.9 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
6 Oct after 13.9 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
7 Oct after 16.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Oct after 18.1 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Oct after 18.9 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Oct after 17.3 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Oct after 16.1 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Oct after 14.2 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Oct after 16.9 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Oct after 15.6 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Oct after 12.9 °C 42 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Oct after 12.7 °C 46 % 59 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 18
17 Oct after 10.6 °C 53 % 47 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 14
18 Oct after 11.2 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
19 Oct after 15.9 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Oct after 18.2 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Oct after 18.2 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Oct after 17.1 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Oct after 13.7 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
24 Oct after 11.4 °C 37 % 50 km/h 1.7 mm Low 9
25 Oct after 15.0 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Oct after 16.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
27 Oct after 16.2 °C 27 % 39 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 16
28 Oct after 9.0 °C 68 % 57 km/h 13.9 mm Very low 0
29 Oct after 13.0 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
30 Oct after 8.7 °C 53 % 59 km/h 10.1 mm Very low 0
31 Oct after 8.1 °C 58 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
1 Nov after 5.9 °C 56 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
2 Nov after 11.9 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
3 Nov after 13.7 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
4 Nov after 14.1 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
5 Nov after 12.9 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
6 Nov after 10.1 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Nov after 13.9 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
8 Nov after 15.3 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
9 Nov after 14.9 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
10 Nov after 15.0 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
11 Nov after 14.5 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Nov after 12.9 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 Nov after 13.9 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Nov after 14.9 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
15 Nov after 13.8 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Nov after 4.4 °C 47 % 51 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
17 Nov after 4.5 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
18 Nov after 9.4 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
19 Nov after 11.5 °C 4 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Nov after 8.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
21 Nov after 1.7 °C 67 % 38 km/h 8.2 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Sept 2016
After · 11 Oct 2016

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 · 141Every 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 Slate fire last?
It burned between 4 October 2016 and 4 October 2016: 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 858 hectares (8.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Tulare (859 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 18.9 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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

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.