Valley Fire
201577,446 acresCalifornia
The Valley Fire burned 77,446 acres, about 121 square miles, across 3 counties. It began on September 12, 2015.
Watch how it happenedValley Fire · 2015
How it happened
Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.
How severely it burned
Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.
| Severity | Share | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered | 33% | 25,395 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 30% | 22,900 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 29% | 22,669 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 7.5% | 5,795 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.1% | 45 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 0.8% | 643 |
33% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 25,395 acres; 62% 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.
| Lake County | CA | 72,318 |
| Sonoma County | CA | 3,883 |
| Napa County | CA | 1,305 |
Other large fires in California in 2015
- Rough Fire146,362 acres
- Rocky Fire96,061 acres
- River Complex78,468 acres
- Butte Fire72,913 acres
- Route Complex35,418 acres
- Pattison Fire31,106 acres
- Lake Fire30,396 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.