Big Mud Fire

201640,919 acresAlaska

The Big Mud Fire burned 40,919 acres, about 64 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on June 2, 2016.

Watch how it happened

Big Mud Fire · 2016

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
Detections271satellite 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 Big Mud Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered69%28,400
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive18%7,537
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive7.1%2,914
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change4.8%1,947
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%44
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images0.2%76

69% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 28,400 acres; 88% 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 AreaAK40,949

Other large fires in Alaska in 2016

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