The Bighorn Fire was a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

in the

Santa Catalina Mountains The Santa Catalina Mountains, commonly referred to as the Catalina Mountains or the Catalinas, are north and northeast of Tucson in Arizona, United States, on Tucson's north perimeter. The mountain range is the most prominent in the Tucson area, w ...

north of

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. It burned until it was finally put out on July 23, 2020. A

lightning strike A lightning strike or lightning bolt is an electric discharge between the atmosphere and the ground. Most originate in a cumulonimbus cloud and terminate on the ground, called cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning. A less common type of strike, ground- ...

from a storm at 9:46 PM on June 5, 2020 caused the fire. The fire was named after the

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspec ...

that inhabit the area. The fire threatened hundreds of homes and multiple evacuations occurred. The first evacuations occurred in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood in Northern Tucson. The following day, residents in the

Oro Valley Oro Valley, incorporated in 1974, is a suburban town located north of Tucson, Arizona, United States, in Pima County. According to the 2020 census, the population of the town is 47,070, an increase from 29,700 in 2000. Dubbed the "Upscale Te ...

section of the Catalina Foothills were ordered to evacuate. On June 16,

Mount Lemmon Mount Lemmon, with a summit elevation of , is the highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains. It is located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Mount Lemmon was named for botanist Sara Plummer Lemmon, who ...

and

Summerhaven Summerhaven is a small unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) on Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson in Pima County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a permanent population of ...

were evacuated. The length of the burn was attributed to rough mountainous terrain and inaccessibility. Additionally, the dry hot weather of the area made it even more difficult to fight the fire. The first

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

of Tucson’s monsoon season is credited with helping emergency crews get the fire under control and to eventually put it out.

References

{{Arizona wildfires 2020 Arizona wildfires Santa Catalina Mountains Wildfires in Pima County, Arizona