How long did the Stone fire last?

It burned between 15 August 2018 and 15 August 2018: 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 15,966 hectares (159.7 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered Modoc (15,929 ha, 1.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.

US · United States · 2018-08-15 → 2018-08-15

Stone Fire, August 2018 Modoc

Out · last detection 16 Aug 2018, 21:05 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2018 in Modoc, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 15,966 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 67th largest in California since 2016 (of 442 with a page). Number 45 in United States in 2018, of 511.

Burnt area: 15,966ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 15 Aug 2018 – 15 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 15 Aug; 2018
Heat detections: 2,454; in a single hotspot: 483 MW
Danger at start: 54; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 3.6GW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug15 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high

51km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 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

Modoc where it started

15,929 ha reached on 16 Aug

1.5 %

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)
15 Aug	32.6 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	Extreme 54
16 Aug after	32.9 °C	12 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
17 Aug after	33.1 °C	8 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
18 Aug after	34.1 °C	11 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
19 Aug after	34.3 °C	9 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
20 Aug after	30.6 °C	12 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
21 Aug after	28.7 °C	14 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
22 Aug after	30.8 °C	14 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
23 Aug after	29.6 °C	12 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
24 Aug after	28.6 °C	16 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
25 Aug after	29.7 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
26 Aug after	28.7 °C	17 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
27 Aug after	25.7 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
28 Aug after	28.3 °C	13 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
29 Aug after	29.7 °C	21 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
30 Aug after	27.3 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
31 Aug after	27.6 °C	14 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
1 Sept after	29.6 °C	10 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
2 Sept after	32.0 °C	10 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
3 Sept after	32.3 °C	10 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
4 Sept after	32.6 °C	12 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
5 Sept after	31.5 °C	14 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
6 Sept after	30.7 °C	10 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
7 Sept after	31.5 °C	10 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
8 Sept after	29.6 °C	11 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
9 Sept after	30.3 °C	8 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
10 Sept after	29.0 °C	11 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Aug 2018

After · 22 Aug 2018

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 · 2,454Every 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 Stone fire last?: It burned between 15 August 2018 and 15 August 2018: 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 15,966 hectares (159.7 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered Modoc (15,929 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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.

Where it burned