Yesterday's image: fire shows in orange and red. NASA MODIS
Red dots: heat detected by satellite in the last 48h. NASA FIRMS
Key facts
Source: NIFCGlossary: what each term means
Barely moving. Low, thin smoke.
Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.
Moves slowly, hugging the ground.
Spreads with low, steady flames.
Spreading evenly and steadily, with visible flame.
Fast and unpredictable.
Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.
Grows along the sides, not head-on.
Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.
Climbs into the treetops and jumps crown to crown. It can't be attacked from the ground.
Climbs into the crowns in bursts and drops back down.
Whole trees flaring up like torches.
Single scattered trees flaring up whole, like torches.
Whole clumps of trees flaring at once.
Wind carries embers through the air and starts new fires ahead of the front: that is how a fire jumps a road or a firebreak.
The wind pushes it in long runs in one direction.
The ones marked ● are the behaviors that make a fire harder to stop. They are not a warning or an instruction: they are the description written by the agency in charge. For decisions, always follow your emergency services.
The story so far
Summary written on Aug 11, while the fire was still active. It has since ended — the figures above are current.
Burning across 924 acres in Rosebud County, Montana, the active Harris Fire is located 30 miles southwest of Ashland. Averaging 462 acres per day across its two days of burning since starting on August 9, 2026, the fire exhibits minimal to running behavior within timber, grass, and understory fuels on federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Containment on the Type 4 incident has reached 60 percent as a response force of 30 personnel, operating under a Type 4 Incident Commander, works the natural-cause fire at a cost of $50,000. This incident unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October.
The broader national landscape shows 2,799,726 hectares burned so far in 2026, marking a figure 49 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Montana for 3 days. In total it burned about 924 acres — around 3.7 km².
In the Northern Hemisphere, wildfire activity usually peaks during the warm, dry months — roughly May through October.
The bigger picture in United States
Across United States, roughly 3,501,295 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 36% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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