Copper King Fire

201628,328 acresMontana

The Copper King Fire burned 28,328 acres, about 44 square miles, across Sanders County. It began on July 31, 2016.

Watch how it happened

Copper King 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
Detections2,368satellite 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 Copper King Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered36%10,212
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive33%9,225
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive24%6,771
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change5.1%1,435
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images2.4%682

36% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 10,212 acres; 69% 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
Sanders CountyMT28,338

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