Winter Trail Fire

2004295,750 acresAlaska

The Winter Trail Fire burned 295,750 acres, about 462 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on June 15, 2004.

Watch how it happened

Winter Trail Fire · 2004

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

Detections4,821satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

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

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

New York City, to scale301 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (4,821 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 Winter Trail Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	14%	40,399
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	48%	142,272
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	26%	77,950
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	11%	31,649
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before	0.7%	2,196
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images	0.4%	1,284

14% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 40,399 acres; 62% 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 Area	AK	295,960

Other large fires in Alaska in 2004

Boundary Fire537,728 acres
Dall City Fire530,540 acres
Taylor Highway Complex (Billy Creek)460,335 acres
North Dag Fire429,332 acres
Pingo Fire353,275 acres
Taylor Highway Complex (Chicken)337,961 acres
Edwards Creek Fire286,038 acres
Taylor Highway Complex (Porcupine)267,550 acres

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