Little Sand Fire
201226,252 acresColorado
The Little Sand Fire burned 26,252 acres, about 41 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on May 13, 2012.
Watch how it happenedLittle Sand Fire · 2012
How it happened
Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.
How severely it burned
Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.
| Severity | Share | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered | 4.8% | 1,254 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 15% | 3,968 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 37% | 9,715 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 19% | 5,026 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 24% | 6,285 |
5% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 1,254 acres; 20% 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.
| Hinsdale County | CO | 15,953 |
| Archuleta County | CO | 10,287 |
Other large fires in Colorado in 2012
- High Park Fire90,698 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.