Nowitna Fire

201753,691 acresAlaska

The Nowitna Fire burned 53,691 acres, about 84 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on July 14, 2017.

Watch how it happened

Nowitna 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
Detections577satellite 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 Nowitna Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered35%18,935
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive34%18,329
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive13%7,020
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change15%8,147
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.5%295
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images1.8%965

35% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 18,935 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
Yukon-Koyukuk Census AreaAK53,735

Other large fires in Alaska in 2017

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