Scu Lightning Complex

2020405,644 acresCalifornia

The Scu Lightning Complex burned 405,644 acres, about 634 square miles, across 6 counties. It began on August 16, 2020.

Watch how it happened

Scu Lightning Complex · 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

Detections11,940satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

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

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Los Angeles, to scale470 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (9,678 VIIRS and 2,262 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 Scu Lightning Complex

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	6.6%	26,710
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	36%	144,197
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	49%	197,110
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	9.2%	37,355

7% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 26,710 acres; 42% 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

Stanislaus County	CA	175,791
Santa Clara County	CA	173,492
Alameda County	CA	24,853
San Joaquin County	CA	24,425
Merced County	CA	3,907
Contra Costa County	CA	3,327

Other large fires in California in 2020

August Complex1.07 million 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
Dolan Fire124,343 acres

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