Sea Fire

2015100,585 acresAlaska

The Sea Fire burned 100,585 acres, about 157 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on June 20, 2015.

Watch how it happened

Sea 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
Detections2,712satellite 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 Sea Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered35%35,612
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive27%27,318
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive15%14,593
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change7.6%7,679
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.4%422
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images15%14,962

35% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 35,612 acres; 63% 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 AreaAK100,672

Other large fires in Alaska in 2015

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