Oks - Starbuck Fire

2017656,868 acresKansas and Oklahoma

The Oks - Starbuck Fire burned 656,868 acres, about 1,026 square miles, across 7 counties. It began on March 7, 2017.

Watch how it happened

Oks - Starbuck 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

Detections2,728satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

Burn severityHigh, Moderate, Low, Unburned to low, Increased greenness

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Houston, to scale640 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (2,290 VIIRS and 438 MODIS) inside the final perimeter; each place takes the time of its nearest detection, so the order is satellite-observed but interpolated between passes, roughly every 12 hours. Severity: Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS, U.S. Forest Service), mapped from Landsat after the fire.

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 Oks - Starbuck Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	6.7%	43,879
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	79%	521,889
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	14%	91,010

No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 7% burned at moderate 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

Clark County	KS	400,834
Beaver County	OK	167,193
Meade County	KS	38,315
Harper County	OK	27,310
Comanche County	KS	23,381
Ford County	KS	157
Kiowa County	KS	105

Other large fires in Kansas and Oklahoma in 2017

Perryton Fire290,085 acres
Oks - 283 Fire68,511 acres
Oks - Selman Fire44,738 acres

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