Caribou Fire

201728,169 acresMontana

The Caribou Fire burned 28,169 acres, about 44 square miles, across Lincoln County. It began on August 11, 2017.

Watch how it happened

Caribou 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
Detections2,692satellite 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 Caribou Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered18%4,964
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive37%10,379
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive30%8,471
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change15%4,321
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%34

18% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 4,964 acres; 54% 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
Lincoln CountyMT24,233

Other large fires in Montana in 2017

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