Willow Fire
201243,578 acresNevada
The Willow Fire burned 43,578 acres, about 68 square miles, across Elko County. It began on August 5, 2012.
Watch how it happenedWillow 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 | 9.2% | 4,021 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 39% | 16,778 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 45% | 19,514 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 3.8% | 1,659 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.5% | 237 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 3.1% | 1,369 |
9% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 4,021 acres; 48% 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.
| Elko County | NV | 43,611 |
Other large fires in Nevada in 2012
- Holloway Fire457,680 acres
- Rush Fire307,085 acres
- Lost Fire57,661 acres
- Del Fire39,039 acres
- Long Canyon Fire36,971 acres
- Gilbert Fire29,764 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.