Middle Fork Complex

200633,857 acresIdaho

The Middle Fork Complex burned 33,857 acres, about 53 square miles, across Custer County. It began on August 9, 2006.

Watch how it happened

Middle Fork Complex · 2006

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
Detections169satellite 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 Middle Fork Complex
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered19%6,303
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive19%6,590
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive27%9,074
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change32%10,947
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.2%64
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images2.6%879

19% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 6,303 acres; 38% 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
Custer CountyID33,859

Other large fires in Idaho in 2006

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