Chippy Creek Fire

200795,636 acresMontana

The Chippy Creek Fire burned 95,636 acres, about 149 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 31, 2007.

Watch how it happened

Chippy Creek Fire · 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
Detections1,510satellite 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 Chippy Creek Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered34%32,152
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive26%24,624
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive24%22,579
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change17%16,128
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.2%154

34% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 32,152 acres; 59% 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
Sanders CountyMT86,055
Flathead CountyMT9,600

Other large fires in Montana in 2007

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