Haystack Fire

202126,109 acresMontana

The Haystack Fire burned 26,109 acres, about 41 square miles, across Jefferson County. It began on August 1, 2021.

Watch how it happened

Haystack 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
Detections2,189satellite 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 Haystack Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered15%3,950
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive30%7,891
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive36%9,509
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change18%4,616
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.5%142

15% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 3,950 acres; 45% 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
Jefferson CountyMT26,124

Other large fires in Montana in 2021

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