North Fork Fire

200230,201 acresAlaska

The North Fork Fire burned 30,201 acres, about 47 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on July 17, 2002.

Watch how it happened

North Fork 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
Detections115satellite 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 North Fork Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered5.1%1,528
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive28%8,399
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive54%16,219
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change10%3,073
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images3.2%981

5% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 1,528 acres; 33% 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 AreaAK30,221

Other large fires in Alaska in 2002

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