Shu Lightning Complex (Moon)

200836,479 acresCalifornia

The Shu Lightning Complex (Moon) burned 36,479 acres, about 57 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on June 21, 2008.

Watch how it happened

Shu Lightning Complex (Moon) · 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

Detections590satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

Burn severityHigh, Moderate, Low, Unburned to low, Increased greenness

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Boston, to scale48 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (590 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 Shu Lightning Complex (Moon)

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	19%	6,804
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	36%	13,100
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	35%	12,880
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	9.1%	3,321
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images	1.0%	365

19% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 6,804 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

Shasta County	CA	36,295
Trinity County	CA	218

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
Piute Fire36,243 acres

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