Mountain Fire

201328,176 acresCalifornia

The Mountain Fire burned 28,176 acres, about 44 square miles, across Riverside County. It began on July 15, 2013.

Watch how it happened

Mountain Fire · 2013

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
Detections1,148satellite 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 Mountain Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered46%13,089
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive29%8,197
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive18%5,018
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change6.6%1,871

46% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 13,089 acres; 76% 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
Riverside CountyCA28,202

Other large fires in California in 2013

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