Moose Lake Fire

2002118,836 acresAlaska

The Moose Lake Fire burned 118,836 acres, about 186 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 17, 2002.

Watch how it happened

Moose Lake Fire · 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
Detections596satellite fire pixels

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 Moose Lake Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered31%36,399
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive39%45,993
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive16%19,394
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change7.1%8,428
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%163
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images7.1%8,460

31% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 36,399 acres; 69% 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
Yukon-Koyukuk Census AreaAK61,549
Denali BoroughAK57,383

Other large fires in Alaska in 2002

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