Beaver Complex

201435,178 acresCalifornia and Oregon

The Beaver Complex burned 35,178 acres, about 55 square miles, across 3 counties. It began on July 31, 2014.

Watch how it happened

Beaver Complex · 2014

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

Detections1,815satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

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

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Boston, to scale48 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (1,536 VIIRS and 279 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 Beaver Complex

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	13%	4,732
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	36%	12,539
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	30%	10,611
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	21%	7,286

13% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 4,732 acres; 49% 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

Klamath County	OR	16,985
Siskiyou County	CA	9,317
Jackson County	OR	8,901

Other large fires in California and Oregon in 2014

Saddle Draw Fire283,891 acres
Happy Camp Complex118,399 acres
King Fire99,100 acres
Buzzard Fire88,633 acres
South Fork Complex66,753 acres
Big Cougar Fire65,339 acres
Black Rock Fire40,766 acres
Shaniko Butte Fire39,843 acres

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