Rocky Fire

201596,061 acresCalifornia

The Rocky Fire burned 96,061 acres, about 150 square miles, across 4 counties. It began on July 29, 2015.

Watch how it happened

Rocky 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
Detections2,513satellite 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 Rocky Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered31%29,687
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive35%33,839
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive25%24,107
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change8.5%8,122
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%51
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images0.3%254

31% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 29,687 acres; 66% 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
Lake CountyCA72,161
Colusa CountyCA10,683
Yolo CountyCA9,373
Napa CountyCA3,907

Other large fires in California in 2015

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