Murphy Complex (Scott Creek)

200759,639 acresIdaho and Nevada

The Murphy Complex (Scott Creek) burned 59,639 acres, about 93 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 16, 2007.

Watch how it happened

Murphy Complex (Scott Creek) · 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

Detections162satellite 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 (162 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 Murphy Complex (Scott Creek)

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	14%	8,553
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	40%	24,009
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	30%	17,746
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	16%	9,326

14% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 8,553 acres; 55% 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	52,756
Twin Falls County	ID	6,885

Other large fires in Idaho and Nevada in 2007

Murphy Complex567,212 acres
East Zone Complex (Raines)318,567 acres
Cascade Complex (Monumental)317,014 acres
Winecup Complex (West Fork)159,891 acres
Antelope Complex130,052 acres
Rattlesnake Fire102,464 acres
Battle Creek Complex (Battle Creek)79,057 acres
Black Pine 2 Fire69,896 acres

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