Chimney Fire

201646,948 acresCalifornia

The Chimney Fire burned 46,948 acres, about 73 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on August 13, 2016.

Watch how it happened

Chimney 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

Detections2,103satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

Burn severityHigh, Moderate, Low, Unburned to low, Increased greenness

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Washington, D.C., to scale61 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (1,664 VIIRS and 439 MODIS) inside the final perimeter; each place takes the time of its nearest detection, so the order is satellite-observed but interpolated between passes, roughly every 12 hours. Severity: Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS, U.S. Forest Service), mapped from Landsat after the fire.

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 Chimney Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	11%	5,050
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	30%	13,856
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	34%	16,176
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	24%	11,384
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before	1.0%	481

11% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 5,050 acres; 40% 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

San Luis Obispo County	CA	42,298
Monterey County	CA	4,651

Other large fires in California in 2016

Soberanes Fire131,881 acres
Erskine Fire48,047 acres
Sand Fire41,543 acres
Blue Cut Fire36,824 acres
Gap Fire33,916 acres
Rey Fire33,352 acres
Cedar Fire29,181 acres

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