Boulder Creek Fire

201740,369 acresAlaska

The Boulder Creek Fire burned 40,369 acres, about 63 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on July 2, 2017.

Watch how it happened

Boulder Creek Fire · 2017

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
Detections979satellite 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 Boulder Creek Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered40%16,204
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive31%12,634
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive15%6,042
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change9.0%3,615
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images4.6%1,864

40% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 16,204 acres; 71% 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 AreaAK40,384

Other large fires in Alaska in 2017

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