Esmeralda Fire

2005101,044 acresNevada

The Esmeralda Fire burned 101,044 acres, about 158 square miles, across Elko County. It began on July 15, 2005.

Watch how it happened

Esmeralda Fire · 2005

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

Detections329satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

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

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Washington, D.C., to scale61 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (329 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 Esmeralda Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	5.7%	5,782
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	54%	54,729
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	26%	26,574
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	13%	13,503
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before	0.5%	456

6% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 5,782 acres; 60% 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

Elko County	NV	101,118

Other large fires in Nevada in 2005

Southern Nevada Complex (Duzak)327,383 acres
Delamar Fire172,427 acres
Southern Nevada Complex (Meadow Valley)150,067 acres
Wilson Complex (Rawhide)50,832 acres
Fork Fire43,701 acres
Goodsprings Fire33,441 acres
Southern Nevada Complex (Tramp)27,580 acres

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