Sarpy Fire
202051,605 acresMontana
The Sarpy Fire burned 51,605 acres, about 81 square miles, across Big Horn County. It began on September 2, 2020.
Watch how it happenedSarpy Fire · 2020
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered | 3.8% | 1,937 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 30% | 15,293 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 63% | 32,549 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 3.5% | 1,826 |
4% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 1,937 acres; 33% 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.
| Big Horn County | MT | 51,617 |
Other large fires in Montana in 2020
- Huff Fire41,768 acres
- Snider Fire33,231 acres
- Bobcat Fire30,661 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.