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Spruce Lake Fire, July 2017 Klamath, Jackson

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2017, 20:28 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2017 in Klamath, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 50 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 6,499 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 99th largest in Oregon since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 124 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Tl Pup 316 · 2017Blanket Creek · 2017Thielsen · 2020Broken Lookout · 2017

Burnt area
6,499ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
≈ 50days
29 Jul 2017 – 16 Sept 2017
Counties hit
2
counties
Started on
29 Jul
2017
Heat detections
1,442
in a single hotspot: 824 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.3GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul16 Sept
16 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

30 Jul 2017 · 29 MW · 6 31 Jul 2017 · 102 MW · 10 1 Aug 2017 · 422 MW · 19 2 Aug 2017 · 1,445 MW · 72 3 Aug 2017 · 1,839 MW · 134 4 Aug 2017 · 647 MW · 90 5 Aug 2017 · 139 MW · 29 7 Aug 2017 · 22 MW · 16 8 Aug 2017 · 1 MW · 2 17 Aug 2017 · 4 MW · 2 18 Aug 2017 · 1 MW · 1 22 Aug 2017 · 7 MW · 6 23 Aug 2017 · 42 MW · 5 24 Aug 2017 · 34 MW · 10 25 Aug 2017 · 10 MW · 10 26 Aug 2017 · 51 MW · 7 27 Aug 2017 · 429 MW · 22 28 Aug 2017 · 220 MW · 38 29 Aug 2017 · 1,328 MW · 66 30 Aug 2017 · 327 MW · 87 31 Aug 2017 · 132 MW · 43 1 Sept 2017 · 772 MW · 81 2 Sept 2017 · 517 MW · 95 3 Sept 2017 · 184 MW · 44 4 Sept 2017 · 2,303 MW · 118 5 Sept 2017 · 31,365 MW · 286 9 Sept 2017 · 5 MW · 5 10 Sept 2017 · 20 MW · 6 11 Sept 2017 · 1,122 MW · 38 12 Sept 2017 · 155 MW · 47 13 Sept 2017 · 84 MW · 30 14 Sept 2017 · 32 MW · 7 15 Sept 2017 · 35 MW · 5 16 Sept 2017 · 13 MW · 5
30 Jul 4 Aug 18 Aug 26 Aug 31 Aug 5 Sept 13 Sept

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
47km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 17 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.1% of the area of London (65 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each county

  1. Klamath where it started
    6,508 ha reached on 30 Jul
    0.4 %
  2. Jackson
    2 ha reached on 4 Aug
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
29 Jul 26.3 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Jul 27.9 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Jul 30.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Aug 31.0 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Aug 32.7 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Aug 31.5 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Aug 28.6 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Aug 23.5 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Aug 26.0 °C 17 % 31 km/h 1.5 mm High 22
7 Aug 24.9 °C 20 % 36 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 16
8 Aug 26.6 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Aug 26.8 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm High 32
10 Aug 25.9 °C 19 % 31 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 14
11 Aug 24.2 °C 29 % 30 km/h 5.5 mm Very low 5
12 Aug 21.9 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 Aug 17.6 °C 55 % 39 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 14
14 Aug 20.3 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Aug 21.2 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Aug 24.3 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Aug 24.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug 25.2 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug 23.5 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Aug 24.6 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Aug 25.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug 23.8 °C 27 % 41 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 14
23 Aug 22.8 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Aug 21.7 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Aug 24.5 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Aug 28.8 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug 28.1 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug 29.5 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Aug 27.8 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug 22.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Aug 27.3 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Sept 32.0 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept 31.9 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Sept 29.0 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 29.6 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept 30.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept 24.0 °C 39 % 34 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Sept 23.0 °C 35 % 27 km/h 13.2 mm Very low 3
8 Sept 19.6 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Low 5
9 Sept 21.1 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
10 Sept 25.0 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Sept 27.7 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Sept 21.7 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
13 Sept 21.1 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Sept 14.6 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
15 Sept 17.2 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
16 Sept 16.1 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
17 Sept after 14.6 °C 34 % 55 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jul 2017
After · 23 Sept 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 · 1,442Every 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 Spruce Lake Fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (29 July 2017). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 16 September 2017 (50 days from 29 July 2017), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 6,499 hectares (65.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Klamath (6,508 ha, 0.4 %); Jackson (2 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: MTBS (US Geological Survey and US Forest Service), official.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 1,442 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.