Matador West Fire

201136,111 acresTexas

The Matador West Fire burned 36,111 acres, about 56 square miles, across Motley County. It began on February 27, 2011.

Watch how it happened

Matador West Fire · 2011

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
Detections25satellite 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 Matador West Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive16%5,914
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive65%23,578
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change18%6,618

No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 16% 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
Motley CountyTX36,114

Other large fires in Texas in 2011

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