Cheeneetnuk Fire

200928,524 acresAlaska

The Cheeneetnuk Fire burned 28,524 acres, about 45 square miles, across Bethel Census Area. It began on July 2, 2009.

Watch how it happened

Cheeneetnuk Fire · 2009

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
Detections211satellite 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 Cheeneetnuk Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered65%18,559
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive19%5,509
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive7.1%2,035
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change5.7%1,624
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%23
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images2.7%774

65% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 18,559 acres; 84% 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
Bethel Census AreaAK28,530

Other large fires in Alaska in 2009

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