Buffalo Creek Fire
200637,611 acresMontana and Wyoming
The Buffalo Creek Fire burned 37,611 acres, about 59 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 13, 2006.
Watch how it happenedBuffalo Creek Fire · 2006
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 | 1.4% | 512 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 29% | 10,737 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 64% | 24,163 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 5.8% | 2,189 |
1% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 512 acres; 30% 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.
| Sheridan County | WY | 28,162 |
| Big Horn County | MT | 9,468 |
Other large fires in Montana and Wyoming in 2006
- Derby Fire200,876 acres
- Pine Ridge Complex103,158 acres
- Bundy Railroad Fire91,623 acres
- Lost Creek (Black Pulaski Complex) Fire38,561 acres
- Soda Creek (Black Pulaski Complex) Fire33,777 acres
- Little Venus Fire33,472 acres
- Red Eagle Fire32,560 acres
- Old Chicago Fire25,198 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.