Kuka Creek 4 Fire

201570,202 acresAlaska

The Kuka Creek 4 Fire burned 70,202 acres, about 110 square miles, across Bethel Census Area. It began on June 22, 2015.

Watch how it happened

Kuka Creek 4 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
Detections1,587satellite 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 Kuka Creek 4 Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered8.7%6,105
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive59%41,163
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive13%8,936
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change5.5%3,844
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.8%568
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images14%9,585

9% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 6,105 acres; 67% 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
Bethel Census AreaAK70,232

Other large fires in Alaska in 2015

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