Goose Creek Fire

2018131,550 acresNevada and Utah

The Goose Creek Fire burned 131,550 acres, about 206 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 26, 2018.

Watch how it happened

Goose Creek Fire · 2018

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

Detections2,142satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

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

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Washington, D.C., to scale61 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (1,720 VIIRS and 422 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 Goose Creek Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	27%	35,921
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	62%	81,670
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	11%	13,937

No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 27% 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

Box Elder County	UT	68,146
Elko County	NV	63,303

Other large fires in Nevada and Utah in 2018

Martin Fire431,841 acres
South Sugarloaf Fire241,278 acres
Pole Creek Fire102,350 acres
Dollar Ridge Fire69,762 acres
Sheep Creek Fire58,436 acres
Perry Fire53,748 acres
Coal Hollow Fire30,219 acres
Goshute Cave Fire27,396 acres

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