Started on Aug 24, 2026.
United States todayLive
True view
Fire view
Fire view (right): infrared (SWIR), sees through smoke and brings out the heat.
🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 brown = already burned
🟠 orange = fire right now
Drag to compare: normal photo on the left, heat brought out on the right.
Green: vegetationBrown: already burnedOrange: fire right nowSentinel-2 · Copernicus
Red dots: heat detected by satellite in the last 48h. NASA FIRMS
Quick facts
- Location
- 1 miles west of Palo Pinto, TX
- Cause
- Human
- People working on it
- 103 people
- Complexity
- Type 1 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Chaparral (6 feet)
- How it's behaving
- ModerateSmoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.Creeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.
- Jurisdiction
- SFS · Private land
Glossary: 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.
Burning for 23 days with an average daily expansion of 3,913 acres, the 89,989-acre Ross Fire remains active near Palo Pinto, Texas, despite reaching 93 percent containment. Situated one mile west of Palo Pinto in Palo Pinto County, the incident is currently managed by a Complex Incident Management Team directing 103 personnel. Satellites are picking up a moderate heat signature from the fire front, which is exhibiting moderate, smoldering, and creeping behavior within six-foot chaparral fuels on private land overseen by the SFS.
Triggered by human activity on August 24, 2026, the Type 1 incident continues to hold containment gains even as the broader region navigates its typical fire season stretching from June to October. Across the country, 3,226,886 hectares have burned so far in 2026, tracking 41 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Texas for 23 days. In total it burned about 89,989 acres — around 364 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 3,362,441 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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