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Weasel Fire, July 2022 Flathead, Lincoln

Out · last measured on 30 Jul 2022

The fire started on 30 July 2022 in Flathead, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 2,329 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 97th largest in Montana since 2016 (of 302 with a page). Number 185 in United States in 2022, of 493.

Burnt area
2,329ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
30 Jul 2022 – 30 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
30 Jul
2022
Heat detections
228
in a single hotspot: 78 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul30 Jul

The weather it burned in

31°high
71km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.9 mm on 14 Sept.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Flathead where it started
    570 ha
    0.0 %
  2. Lincoln
    548 ha reached on 12 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
30 Jul 30.1 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
31 Jul after 30.1 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Aug after 28.4 °C 16 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Aug after 24.5 °C 21 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Aug after 24.1 °C 18 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Aug after 20.1 °C 28 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Aug after 19.9 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Aug after 20.9 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
7 Aug after 24.7 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Aug after 27.3 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Aug after 30.1 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Aug after 24.9 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Aug after 28.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Aug after 28.8 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
13 Aug after 26.1 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Aug after 24.0 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Aug after 25.5 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Aug after 26.6 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Aug after 28.1 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Aug after 30.7 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Aug after 30.2 °C 15 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug after 25.7 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.8 mm High 22
21 Aug after 25.7 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Aug after 27.5 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
23 Aug after 23.4 °C 38 % 25 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 5
24 Aug after 19.7 °C 57 % 48 km/h 1.8 mm Low 5
25 Aug after 18.5 °C 55 % 23 km/h 5.6 mm Very low 0
26 Aug after 21.2 °C 41 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm Low 6
27 Aug after 14.2 °C 62 % 70 km/h 7.0 mm Very low 0
28 Aug after 16.6 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
29 Aug after 22.5 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
30 Aug after 26.5 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
31 Aug after 27.9 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
1 Sept after 26.3 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Sept after 27.2 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Sept after 28.7 °C 15 % 59 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
4 Sept after 23.3 °C 26 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Sept after 20.7 °C 25 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Sept after 23.7 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Sept after 24.6 °C 20 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Sept after 13.9 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 19
9 Sept after 13.4 °C 32 % 31 km/h 1.3 mm Low 8
10 Sept after 19.7 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
11 Sept after 20.4 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Sept after 19.4 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm High 22
13 Sept after 18.6 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
14 Sept after 16.9 °C 45 % 20 km/h 5.9 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2022
After · 6 Aug 2022

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 · 228Every 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 Weasel fire last?
It burned between 30 July 2022 and 30 July 2022: 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 2,329 hectares (23.3 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Flathead (570 ha, 0.0 %); Lincoln (548 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class 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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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.

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.