Porcupine Complex

201248,973 acresIdaho

The Porcupine Complex burned 48,973 acres, about 77 square miles, across Idaho County. It began on August 9, 2012.

Watch how it happened

Porcupine Complex · 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

Detections5,999satellite 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 (5,020 VIIRS and 979 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 Porcupine Complex

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	30%	14,793
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	30%	14,797
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	24%	11,956
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	15%	7,370
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before	0.1%	44

30% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 14,793 acres; 60% 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

Idaho County	ID	48,980

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
Flat Top 2 Fire102,417 acres
Cave Canyon Fire84,831 acres
Cache Creek Fire75,463 acres
Sheep Fire50,738 acres

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