Cascade Complex (Monumental)

2007317,014 acresIdaho

The Cascade Complex (Monumental) burned 317,014 acres, about 495 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 17, 2007.

Watch how it happened

Cascade Complex (Monumental) · 2007

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

Detections3,621satellite 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 (3,621 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 Cascade Complex (Monumental)

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	31%	98,221
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	17%	54,681
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	14%	44,749
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	19%	59,115
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before	0.6%	2,014
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images	18%	58,235

31% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 98,221 acres; 48% 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

Valley County	ID	302,911
Custer County	ID	14,245

Other large fires in Idaho in 2007

Murphy Complex567,212 acres
East Zone Complex (Raines)318,567 acres
Rattlesnake Fire102,464 acres
Battle Creek Complex (Battle Creek)79,057 acres
Black Pine 2 Fire69,896 acres
Highway 93 Complex (West Basin)63,158 acres
Poe Cabin Fire59,657 acres
Murphy Complex (Scott Creek)59,639 acres

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