Witch Fire
2007167,415 acresCalifornia
The Witch Fire burned 167,415 acres, about 262 square miles, across San Diego County. It began on October 21, 2007.
Watch how it happenedWitch 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 | 14% | 23,312 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 25% | 41,138 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 28% | 46,944 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 29% | 48,279 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 4.4% | 7,318 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 0.3% | 423 |
14% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 23,312 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.
| San Diego County | CA | 167,551 |
Other large fires in California in 2007
- Zaca Fire242,003 acres
- Harris Fire90,374 acres
- Moonlight Fire65,726 acres
- Poomacha Fire47,467 acres
- Buckweed Fire41,315 acres
- Ranch Fire37,006 acres
- Inyo Complex (Oak)28,426 acres
- Santiago Fire27,585 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.