How long did the Windmill fire last?

It burned between 14 March 2025 and 14 March 2025: 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 9,424 hectares (94.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 2 counties: Ochiltree (7,280 ha, 3.1 %); Roberts (2,128 ha, 0.9 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 18.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 111 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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 · 2025-03-14 → 2025-03-14

Windmill Fire, March 2025 Ochiltree, Roberts

Out · last detection 14 Mar 2025, 20:26 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2025 in Ochiltree, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 9,424 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 19th largest in Texas since 2016 (of 327 with a page). Number 41 in United States in 2025, of 327.

Burnt area: 9,424ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 14 Mar 2025 – 14 Mar 2025
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 14 Mar; 2025
Heat detections: 98; in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start: 67; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 1.6GW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar14 Mar

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

18°high

111km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,665 ha in 2017, 396 ha in 2022, 1 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,665 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Ochiltree where it started

7,280 ha reached on 14 Mar

3.1 %
Roberts

2,128 ha reached on 14 Mar

0.9 %

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)
14 Mar	17.2 °C	17 %	111 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
15 Mar after	13.0 °C	17 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Mar after	18.2 °C	12 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
17 Mar after	28.2 °C	10 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
18 Mar after	28.4 °C	12 %	91 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
19 Mar after	12.9 °C	21 %	102 km/h	0.7 mm	Extreme 50
20 Mar after	15.8 °C	16 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
21 Mar after	18.1 °C	15 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
22 Mar after	25.0 °C	15 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
23 Mar after	16.7 °C	21 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
24 Mar after	23.8 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
25 Mar after	25.9 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
26 Mar after	26.0 °C	34 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Mar 2025

After · 21 Mar 2025

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 12 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 9 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak9 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1021 µg/m³

Optical depth0.29

1213141516171819

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 98Every 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 Windmill fire last?: It burned between 14 March 2025 and 14 March 2025: 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 9,424 hectares (94.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 2 counties: Ochiltree (7,280 ha, 3.1 %); Roberts (2,128 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 18.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 111 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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