Rat Creek Fire
200725,935 acresMontana
The Rat Creek Fire burned 25,935 acres, about 41 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on August 9, 2007.
Watch how it happenedRat Creek Fire · 2007
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 | 37% | 9,469 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 18% | 4,646 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 24% | 6,281 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 21% | 5,522 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.1% | 16 |
37% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 9,469 acres; 54% 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.
| Beaverhead County | MT | 25,834 |
| Ravalli County | MT | 94 |
Other large fires in Montana in 2007
- Chippy Creek Fire95,636 acres
- Sawmill Complex (Wyman 2)68,250 acres
- Fool Creek Fire53,902 acres
- Ahorn Fire45,626 acres
- Skyland Fire41,230 acres
- Bridge Fire36,729 acres
- Jocko Lakes Fire35,790 acres
- Brush Creek Fire30,161 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.