Cultas Creek Fire

202142,173 acresAlaska

The Cultas Creek Fire burned 42,173 acres, about 66 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on June 17, 2021.

Watch how it happened

Cultas Creek Fire · 2021

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
Detections897satellite fire pixels

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 Cultas Creek Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered21%9,046
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive39%16,421
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive26%11,036
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change13%5,462
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%46
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images0.4%162

21% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 9,046 acres; 60% 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
Yukon-Koyukuk Census AreaAK35,763
Southeast Fairbanks Census AreaAK6,415

Other large fires in Alaska in 2021

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