Whitetail Fire

201533,569 acresArizona

The Whitetail Fire burned 33,569 acres, about 52 square miles, across Gila County. It began on June 16, 2015.

Watch how it happened

Whitetail 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
Detections1,046satellite 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 Whitetail Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered7.7%2,600
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive28%9,427
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive44%14,627
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change19%6,521
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images1.1%379

8% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 2,600 acres; 36% 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
Gila CountyAZ33,592

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