Schwartz Fire

201180,814 acresTexas

The Schwartz Fire burned 80,814 acres, about 126 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on May 7, 2011.

Watch how it happened

Schwartz 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
Detections270satellite 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 Schwartz Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive3.0%2,423
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive87%70,427
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change9.9%7,964

No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 3% 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
Pecos CountyTX52,134
Brewster CountyTX28,653

Other large fires in Texas in 2011

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