Piute Fire
200836,243 acresCalifornia
The Piute Fire burned 36,243 acres, about 57 square miles, across Kern County. It began on June 28, 2008.
Watch how it happenedPiute Fire · 2008
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 | 29% | 10,424 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 30% | 10,898 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 26% | 9,349 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 15% | 5,558 |
29% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 10,424 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.
| Kern County | CA | 36,250 |
Other large fires in California in 2008
- Basin Complex164,453 acres
- Siskiyou-Blue 2 Complex (Blue 2)100,756 acres
- Yolla Bolly Complex (Iron)94,807 acres
- Panther Fire71,402 acres
- Basin Complex (Indians)59,072 acres
- Btu Lightning Complex (Long Branch-Jack)52,072 acres
- Bear Wallow Complex (Ukonom)39,999 acres
- Shu Lightning Complex (Moon)36,479 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.