Cottonwood Fire
199447,943 acresCalifornia
The Cottonwood Fire burned 47,943 acres, about 75 square miles, across Sierra County. It began on August 16, 1994.
Watch how it happenedCottonwood Fire · 1994
How it happened
See how severely each place burned, revealed outward from where it started.
How severely it burned
Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.
| Severity | Share | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered | 27% | 12,920 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 28% | 13,255 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 29% | 14,063 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 16% | 7,467 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.5% | 238 |
27% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 12,920 acres; 55% burned at moderate or high severity.
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (U.S. Geological Survey and USDA Forest Service). Classes come from the change in a Landsat burn index (dNBR) between images before and after the fire; acres are each class’s share of the fire’s mapped area.
Where it burned
Acres inside each county, measured from the satellite-mapped perimeter.
| Sierra County | CA | 47,912 |
Other large fires in California in 1994
- 41 Fire48,452 acres
- Barkley Fire44,235 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.