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Smith Fire, August 2021 Douglas

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2021, 21:19 UTC

The fire started on 2 August 2021 in Douglas, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 20,522 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 38th largest in Oregon since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 32 in United States in 2021, of 385.

Burnt area
20,522ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
2 Aug 2021 – 2 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
2 Aug
2021
Heat detections
4,646
in a single hotspot: 514 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
2MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Aug2 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2

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
58km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 25.5 mm on 27 Sept.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 32 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Douglas where it started
    20,461 ha reached on 2 Aug
    1.6 %

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)
2 Aug 34.0 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Aug after 33.0 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Aug after 33.7 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Aug after 25.2 °C 45 % 48 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 20
6 Aug after 30.2 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Aug after 31.1 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Aug after 26.9 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
9 Aug after 31.1 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Aug after 34.5 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Aug after 37.7 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Aug after 37.6 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Aug after 33.9 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.6 mm High 36
14 Aug after 34.0 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Aug after 34.8 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Aug after 31.5 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Aug after 21.5 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
18 Aug after 26.9 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Aug after 27.3 °C 38 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Aug after 25.4 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Aug after 23.6 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Aug after 25.7 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Aug after 25.4 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Aug after 27.2 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Aug after 26.1 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
26 Aug after 28.2 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
27 Aug after 26.7 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Aug after 31.8 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Aug after 30.2 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Aug after 25.2 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Aug after 24.7 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept after 26.0 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Sept after 26.9 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Sept after 29.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Sept after 31.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Sept after 31.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Sept after 32.8 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept after 33.2 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Sept after 31.8 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Sept after 28.2 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm High 32
10 Sept after 21.6 °C 70 % 36 km/h 13.0 mm Very low 0
11 Sept after 27.3 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
12 Sept after 25.7 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Sept after 25.3 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Sept after 28.6 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Sept after 24.8 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Sept after 26.4 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Sept after 28.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Sept after 17.8 °C 44 % 58 km/h 42.8 mm Very low 0
19 Sept after 16.6 °C 53 % 52 km/h 11.7 mm Very low 0
20 Sept after 25.4 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
21 Sept after 29.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
22 Sept after 23.5 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
23 Sept after 27.5 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
24 Sept after 30.9 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Sept after 27.7 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
26 Sept after 25.0 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
27 Sept after 16.3 °C 62 % 47 km/h 25.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jul 2021
After · 9 Aug 2021

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 · 4,646Every 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 Smith fire last?
It burned between 2 August 2021 and 2 August 2021: 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 20,522 hectares (205.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Douglas (20,461 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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

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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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.