South Breaks Fire
201739,230 acresMontana
The South Breaks Fire burned 39,230 acres, about 61 square miles, across Garfield County. It began on July 19, 2017.
Watch how it happenedSouth Breaks Fire · 2017
How it happened
Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.
How severely it burned
Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.
| Severity | Share | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 32% | 12,376 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 68% | 26,662 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 0.5% | 191 |
No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 32% 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.
| Garfield County | MT | 39,217 |
Other large fires in Montana in 2017
- Bridge Coulee Fire222,645 acres
- Rice Ridge Fire171,675 acres
- Sartin Draw Fire91,520 acres
- Deer Creek Fire90,111 acres
- Meyers Fire68,734 acres
- Lolo Peak Fire62,337 acres
- Little Hogback Fire34,653 acres
- Alice Creek Fire29,951 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.