Flat Top 2 Fire

2012102,417 acresIdaho

The Flat Top 2 Fire burned 102,417 acres, about 160 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on August 5, 2012.

Watch how it happened

Flat Top 2 Fire · 2012

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

Detections516satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

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

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Washington, D.C., to scale61 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (420 VIIRS and 96 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 Flat Top 2 Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	1.9%	1,924
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	81%	82,724
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	6.1%	6,253
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images	11%	11,510

No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 2% 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

Lincoln County	ID	102,041
Minidoka County	ID	299

Other large fires in Idaho in 2012

Mustang Complex377,684 acres
Halstead Fire190,122 acres
Kinyon Road Fire171,373 acres
Trinity Ridge Fire141,762 acres
Cave Canyon Fire84,831 acres
Cache Creek Fire75,463 acres
Sheep Fire50,738 acres
Porcupine Complex48,973 acres

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