Valley Fire, July 2020 Graham, Gila
The fire started on 13 July 2020 in Graham, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 11,859 hectares, spread across 2 counties.
It is the 24th largest in Arizona since 2016 (of 380 with a page). Number 58 in United States in 2020, of 441.
- Burnt area
- 11,859ha
- official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
- Duration
- 1day
- 13 Jul 2020 – 13 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 13 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 161
- in a single hotspot: 37 MW
- Danger at start
- 62
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 16 Jul.
This area had burned before
55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,127 ha in 2016, 5,981 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,501 ha that had burned before.
- 5,951 ha Huck fire, July 2019 6,043 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 632 ha Triplets fire, August 2016 642 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 494 ha Summit fire, June 2016 499 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 30 ha Bronco Gulch fire, July 2019 4,718 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Graham where it started11,940 ha reached on 13 Jul1.0 %
-
19 ha reached on 14 Jul0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul | 37.5 °C | 17 % | 50 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 14 Jul after | 36.5 °C | 16 % | 47 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 15 Jul after | 35.6 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Jul after | 35.2 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 1.8 mm | High 29 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 161Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,853 haBlue River GilaJune 2020 · 1 day · 12 km away
- 10,876 haBlue River 2 GilaJuly 2020 · 1 day · 13 km away
- 8,708 haCassadore Springs GilaAugust 2020 · 1 day · 19 km away
- 25,654 haGriffin GilaAugust 2020 · 4 days · 22 km away
- 7,301 haBronco GilaAugust 2025 · 1 day · 30 km away
- 13,340 haHilltop GilaJune 2017 · 1 day · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Valley fire last?
- It burned between 13 July 2020 and 13 July 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 11,859 hectares (118.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
- Which counties burned?
- The fire entered 2 counties: Graham (11,940 ha, 1.0 %); Gila (19 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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
- NIFC · National Interagency Fire Center ↗
- InciWeb · Incident Information System ↗
- MTBS · Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity ↗
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.
Report an error
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.