Porter Fire

200847,619 acresTexas

The Porter Fire burned 47,619 acres, about 74 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on March 14, 2008.

Watch how it happened

Porter Fire · 2008

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
Detections127satellite 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 Porter Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive17%8,098
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive61%29,063
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change22%10,449

No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 17% burned at moderate 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
Terrell CountyTX39,548
Pecos CountyTX8,021

Other large fires in Texas in 2008

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