Caldwell Fire

202081,842 acresCalifornia

The Caldwell Fire burned 81,842 acres, about 128 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 22, 2020.

Watch how it happened

Caldwell Fire · 2020

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

Detections1,584satellite 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 (1,263 VIIRS and 321 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 Caldwell Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	5.0%	4,128
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	12%	10,145
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	77%	63,421
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	5.1%	4,147

5% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 4,128 acres; 17% 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

Siskiyou County	CA	42,497
Modoc County	CA	39,376

Other large fires in California in 2020

August Complex1.07 million acres
Scu Lightning Complex405,644 acres
Creek Fire381,529 acres
North Complex316,524 acres
Hennessey Fire314,015 acres
Castle Fire174,347 acres
Slater Fire157,657 acres
Red Salmon Complex147,429 acres

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