Middle Yukon Fires

2015407,220 acresAlaska

The Middle Yukon Fires burned 407,220 acres, about 636 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on July 3, 2015.

Watch how it happened

Middle Yukon Fires · 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

Detections6,308satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

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

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Los Angeles, to scale470 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (5,137 VIIRS and 1,171 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 Middle Yukon Fires

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	31%	125,713
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	26%	107,015
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	12%	47,968
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	8.2%	33,257
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before	0.7%	2,708
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images	22%	90,559

31% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 125,713 acres; 57% 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

Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	AK	407,461

Other large fires in Alaska in 2015

Tobatokh Fire220,037 acres
Isahultila Fire192,663 acres
Holtnakatna Fire180,199 acres
Tanana Area Fires176,773 acres
Rock Fire142,933 acres
Big Mud River 1 Fire140,914 acres
Munsatli 2 Fire124,572 acres
Blazo Fire123,916 acres

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