Witten Fire

201727,927 acresMontana

The Witten Fire burned 27,927 acres, about 44 square miles, across Rosebud County. It began on July 7, 2017.

Watch how it happened

Witten 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
Detections600satellite 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 Witten Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered13%3,524
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive38%10,563
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive40%11,195
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change9.5%2,645

13% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 3,524 acres; 50% 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
Rosebud CountyMT27,938

Other large fires in Montana in 2017

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