Hot Creek Fire
200327,024 acresIdaho
The Hot Creek Fire burned 27,024 acres, about 42 square miles, across Elmore County. It began on July 19, 2003.
Watch how it happenedHot Creek Fire · 2003
How it happened
Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.
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 | 19% | 5,164 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 33% | 8,935 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 34% | 9,179 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 14% | 3,690 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.2% | 56 |
19% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 5,164 acres; 52% 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.
| Elmore County | ID | 27,032 |
Other large fires in Idaho in 2003
- Deep Fire38,684 acres
- Middle Fork Complex (Falconberry)26,626 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.