Sand Fire
201641,543 acresCalifornia
The Sand Fire burned 41,543 acres, about 65 square miles, across Los Angeles County. It began on July 22, 2016.
Watch how it happenedSand Fire · 2016
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 | 1.8% | 734 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 24% | 10,080 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 50% | 20,925 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 21% | 8,843 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 2.3% | 946 |
2% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 734 acres; 26% 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.
| Los Angeles County | CA | 41,561 |
Other large fires in California in 2016
- Soberanes Fire131,881 acres
- Erskine Fire48,047 acres
- Chimney Fire46,948 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.