Richard Spring Fire
2021168,686 acresMontana
The Richard Spring Fire burned 168,686 acres, about 264 square miles, across Rosebud County. It began on August 8, 2021.
Watch how it happenedRichard Spring 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 | 4.5% | 7,675 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 14% | 24,288 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 58% | 98,135 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 23% | 38,024 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.3% | 527 |
5% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 7,675 acres; 19% 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.
| Rosebud County | MT | 168,763 |
Other large fires in Montana in 2021
- P F Fire66,446 acres
- Trail Creek Fire62,475 acres
- Woods Creek Fire55,808 acres
- Thorne Creek Fire39,680 acres
- Alder Creek Fire38,181 acres
- Harris Mtn Fire31,769 acres
- Robertson Draw Fire31,126 acres
- Haystack Fire26,109 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.