Radio Creek Fire

202246,182 acresAlaska

The Radio Creek Fire burned 46,182 acres, about 72 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on June 21, 2022.

Watch how it happened

Radio Creek Fire · 2022

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

Detections1,182satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

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

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Washington, D.C., to scale61 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (880 VIIRS and 302 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 Radio Creek Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	14%	6,285
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	30%	14,021
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	38%	17,761
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	17%	8,002
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before	0.1%	49
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images	0.1%	65

14% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 6,285 acres; 44% 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 Area	AK	46,177

Other large fires in Alaska in 2022

Koktuli River Fire296,617 acres
Tatlawiksuk Fire262,238 acres
Hog Butte Fire206,009 acres
East Fork Fire169,400 acres
Door Mountain Fire167,023 acres
Aghaluk Mountain Fire115,788 acres
Chitanana Fire105,682 acres
Kiknik Fire99,643 acres

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