Cove Fire

201730,883 acresCalifornia

The Cove Fire burned 30,883 acres, about 48 square miles, across Modoc County. It began on July 25, 2017.

Watch how it happened

Cove 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
Detections1,476satellite 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 Cove Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered10%3,130
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive27%8,446
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive31%9,425
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change32%9,737
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.5%145

10% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 3,130 acres; 37% 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
Modoc CountyCA30,884

Other large fires in California in 2017

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