Carlson Lake Fire

201548,156 acresAlaska

The Carlson Lake Fire burned 48,156 acres, about 75 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on June 25, 2015.

Watch how it happened

Carlson Lake Fire · 2015

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
Detections1,225satellite 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 Carlson Lake Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered8.2%3,946
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive45%21,724
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive30%14,231
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change10%5,016
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%59
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images6.6%3,179

8% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 3,946 acres; 53% 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
Denali BoroughAK48,194
Yukon-Koyukuk Census AreaAK2

Other large fires in Alaska in 2015

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