How long did the Watson Creek Fire last?

The official perimeter only gives the start date (15 August 2018). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 21 September 2018 (38 days from 15 August 2018), 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 25,157 hectares (251.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 2 counties: Lake (25,087 ha, 1.2 %); Klamath (1 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

US · United States · 2018-08-15 → 2018-09-21

Watson Creek Fire, August 2018 Lake, Klamath

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2018, 10:07 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2018 in Lake, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 25,157 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 31th largest in Oregon since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 25 in United States in 2018, of 511.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Brattain · 2020 Withers · 2016 Morgan · 2023 Log · 2021

Burnt area: 25,157ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: ≈ 38days; 15 Aug 2018 – 21 Sept 2018
Counties hit: 2; counties
Started on: 15 Aug; 2018
Heat detections: 5,788; in a single hotspot: 616 MW
Danger at start: 41; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 4.8GW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug21 Sept

Play back 21 Sept 2018

How it evolved, day by day

16 Aug 18 Aug 20 Aug 24 Aug 28 Aug 1 Sept 5 Sept 10 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

28°high

62km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.7 mm on 30 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 16% of the area of London (252 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

Lake where it started

25,087 ha reached on 16 Aug

1.2 %
Klamath

1 ha

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 2020

Built-up area0.25 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.25 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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)
15 Aug	25.2 °C	20 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 41
16 Aug	27.2 °C	11 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
17 Aug	26.0 °C	11 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
18 Aug	27.6 °C	12 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
19 Aug	27.3 °C	11 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
20 Aug	22.6 °C	18 %	35 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 40
21 Aug	21.4 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	High 36
22 Aug	24.6 °C	18 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Aug	22.5 °C	22 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
24 Aug	22.1 °C	14 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
25 Aug	22.0 °C	13 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
26 Aug	21.2 °C	22 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
27 Aug	18.3 °C	24 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
28 Aug	22.2 °C	15 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
29 Aug	24.7 °C	19 %	42 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 40
30 Aug	21.1 °C	26 %	44 km/h	0.7 mm	High 30
31 Aug	21.5 °C	18 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
1 Sept	23.6 °C	14 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
2 Sept	25.3 °C	12 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
3 Sept	25.8 °C	11 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
4 Sept	26.0 °C	15 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
5 Sept	25.7 °C	10 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
6 Sept	24.8 °C	11 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
7 Sept	24.1 °C	14 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
8 Sept	21.9 °C	12 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
9 Sept	23.6 °C	11 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
10 Sept	21.3 °C	16 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
11 Sept	16.2 °C	17 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
12 Sept	13.6 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.4 mm	High 37
13 Sept	13.5 °C	21 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
14 Sept	15.8 °C	17 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
15 Sept	16.2 °C	18 %	62 km/h	0.7 mm	High 38
16 Sept	16.5 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
17 Sept	19.5 °C	10 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
18 Sept	18.7 °C	21 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
19 Sept	16.4 °C	16 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
20 Sept	19.5 °C	13 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
21 Sept	21.7 °C	11 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Sept after	18.2 °C	18 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
23 Sept after	15.1 °C	10 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
24 Sept after	15.9 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
25 Sept after	20.8 °C	11 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
26 Sept after	23.6 °C	9 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
27 Sept after	25.6 °C	10 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
28 Sept after	23.4 °C	12 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
29 Sept after	16.1 °C	23 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
30 Sept after	12.6 °C	43 %	39 km/h	4.7 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Aug 2018

After · 28 Sept 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 · 5,788Every 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 Watson Creek Fire last?: The official perimeter only gives the start date (15 August 2018). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 21 September 2018 (38 days from 15 August 2018), 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 25,157 hectares (251.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 2 counties: Lake (25,087 ha, 1.2 %); Klamath (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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

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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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What really happened?

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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. 5,788 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 2020, 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.

Where it burned