Biscuit Complex (Biscuit)

2002494,980 acresCalifornia and Oregon

The Biscuit Complex (Biscuit) burned 494,980 acres, about 773 square miles, across 3 counties. It began on July 13, 2002.

Watch how it happened

Biscuit Complex (Biscuit) · 2002

How it happened

Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.

About this replay

Date (UTC)—Historical replay

Burned so far—acres

High severity—of the area so far

Detections4,692satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

Burn severityHigh, Moderate, Low, Unburned to low, Increased greenness

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Houston, to scale640 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (4,692 MODIS) inside the final perimeter; each place takes the time of its nearest detection, so the order is satellite-observed but interpolated between passes, roughly every 12 hours. Severity: Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS, U.S. Forest Service), mapped from Landsat after the fire.

How severely it burned

Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.

Map of burn severity across the Biscuit Complex (Biscuit)

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	29%	144,892
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	30%	146,826
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	21%	105,966
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	20%	96,881
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before	0.1%	414

29% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 144,892 acres; 59% 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.

Acres burned by county

Curry County	OR	264,866
Josephine County	OR	200,773
Del Norte County	CA	29,669

Other large fires in California and Oregon in 2002

Mcnally Fire146,478 acres
Pines Fire65,352 acres
Tool Box Complex (Tool Box)56,333 acres
Boulder Fire48,469 acres
Trimbly Creek Fire43,057 acres
Williams Fire37,480 acres
Grizzly Complex (Winter)33,986 acres
Mahogany Complex (Atkins Butte)33,447 acres

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.