Rock Fire

2015142,933 acresAlaska

The Rock Fire burned 142,933 acres, about 223 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on June 19, 2015.

Watch how it happened

Rock 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
Detections5,265satellite 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 Rock Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered45%64,419
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive32%45,042
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive9.8%14,040
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change5.6%7,981
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%105
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images7.9%11,347

45% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 64,419 acres; 77% 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 AreaAK143,047

Other large fires in Alaska in 2015

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