Rock House Fire

2011299,011 acresTexas

The Rock House Fire burned 299,011 acres, about 467 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on April 9, 2011.

Watch how it happened

Rock House 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
Detections1,102satellite 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 Rock House Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered0.6%1,737
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive30%89,639
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive66%197,303
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change3.4%10,047
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%246

1% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 1,737 acres; 31% 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
Jeff Davis CountyTX280,207
Presidio CountyTX18,962

Other large fires in Texas in 2011

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