Black Hills Fire
202128,339 acresAlaska
The Black Hills Fire burned 28,339 acres, about 44 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 21, 2021.
Watch how it happenedBlack Hills Fire · 2021
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 | 7.3% | 2,058 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 24% | 6,767 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 40% | 11,477 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 17% | 4,858 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.1% | 27 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 11% | 3,153 |
7% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 2,058 acres; 31% 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.
| Southeast Fairbanks Census Area | AK | 22,773 |
| Copper River Census Area | AK | 5,583 |
Other large fires in Alaska in 2021
- Munson Creek Fire54,072 acres
- Dry Creek Fire53,267 acres
- Cultas Creek Fire42,173 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.