Wildfire in Idaho, July 22, 2003

Name: Wildfire in Idaho, July 22, 2003
Start: 2003-07-22T16:00
End: 2003-07-22T16:00
Location: Idaho

July 22, 2003 · NWS MSO · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Two fire fighters were killed on the Cramer Fire, 17 miles west of Shoup in western Lemhi County. Several days of hot and dry conditions caused the Cramer Fire to expand rapidly.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
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The toll

Deaths: 2
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS MSO wrote it up.

Two fire fighters were killed on the Cramer Fire, 17 miles west of Shoup in western Lemhi County. Several days of hot and dry conditions caused the Cramer Fire to expand rapidly. The fire fighters were killed near a helipad waiting for a helicopter to pick them up, when the fire over took them.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Missoula, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 22, 1:15 PM MST, 2 hours 45 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 22, 1:15 PM MST, 2 hours 45 minutes before

WESTERN MONTANA AND NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MISSOULA MT
215 PM MDT TUE JUL 22 2003

.SHORT TERM...RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE NEAR THE FOUR CORNERS WILL
CONTINUE TO IMPACT WESTERN MONTANA AND NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO THROUGH
FRIDAY. CUMULUS IS CURRENTLY DEVELOPING TO OUR SOUTH AND SHOULD
ONLY DEVELOP IN LEMHI COUNTY TONIGHT. SKIES WILL REMAIN MOSTLY CLEAR
TONIGHT WITH NO CUMULUS OR CONVECTION EXPECTED. WEDNESDAY MOISTURE
MOVES UP ALONG THE BACKSIDE OF THE RIDGE ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO
AND MOVES INTO SOUTHWEST MONTANA. CU WILL BEGIN TO DEVELOP IN THE
AFTERNOON OVER THESE AREAS. 850MB TEMPERATURES REMAIN JUST AS WARM OR
WARMER THAN TODAY. NEAR RECORD BREAKING TEMPERATURES POSSIBLE
TOMORROW IN KALISPELL...MISSOULA AND BUTTE. PRECIPITABLE WATER ON THE
ETA BUFR SOUNDINGS DOUBLES BETWEEN THIS AFTERNOON AND WED AFTERNOON.
AN UPPER LEVEL JET MOVES OVER THE RIDGE IN NORTHWEST MT TOMORROW TO
PROVIDE LIFT...AND THE ATMOSPHERE DESTABILIZES. ALL CONDITIONS FACTOR
INTO A SLIGHT CHANCE OF AFTERNOON AND EVENING THUNDERSTORMS...MAINLY
IN IDAHO...CLEARWATER AND RAVALLI COUNTIES. WITH CONDITIONS BEING SO
HOT AND DRY AT THE SURFACE...THUNDERSTORMS MAY START OFF BEING DRY...
AND THEN BY EVENING BECOME MORE WET. WINDS WILL ALSO BE A FACTOR
TOMORROW...ESPECIALLY NORTH. WINDS AND HOT DRY AIR WILL MIX DOWN TO
THE SURFACE IN THE AFTERNOON. FIRE WEATHER FORECASTER HAS THUS
DECIDED ON A FIRE WEATHER WATCH FOR ALL FIRE WEATHER ZONES WED
AFTERNOON AND EVENING...FOR A COMBINATION OF THUNDERSTORMS SOUTH AND
WINDS IN THE NORTH.

ON THURSDAY SOME MORE ENERGY MOVES OVER THE RIDGE TO ONCE AGAIN
PRODUCE A SLIGHT CHANCE OF AFTERNOON AND EVENING THUNDERSTORMS.
THE THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP MORE ALONG THE SALMON...BUTTE/PINTLAR
REGION. PREFER THE META OVER THE AVN WITH PLACEMENT OF THE
PRECIPITATION. DO NOT THINK ANY SHOWERS WILL DEVELOP NORTH OF THE
MISSOULA AREA.

FRIDAY TEMPERATURES WILL COOL A FEW DEGREES AS THE UPPER LEVEL LOW
MOVES ACROSS BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA WITH THE BEST CHANCE OF
SHOWERS DEVELOPING MAINLY ALONG THE DIVIDE. KOCH

.LONG TERM...LONG RANGE MODELS INDICATING THAT TROUGH NORTH OF THE
ROCKIES OVER CANADA WILL BE WEAKENING AND ONLY BRUSH THE
CANADIAN AND NORTHWEST MT BORDERS BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING.
THIS SYSTEM JUST FLATTENS THE RIDGE WITH THE WEATHER INFLUENCED BY
WEAK WEST TO SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT. CENTER OF UPPER LEVEL HIGH
PRESSURE RIDGE WILL BE OVER UTAH AND BUILDING WITH TIME. HENCE...
TEMPERATURES SLIGHTLY ABOVE NORMAL OVER THE WEEKEND...WILL SOAR BACK
INTO THE 90S TO LOWER 100S LATE MONDAY INTO TUESDAY. TUESDAY
SHOULD BE THE WARMEST DAY. EXCEPT FOR A SLIGHT CHANCE OF LIGHT RAIN
SHOWERS ALONG THE DIVIDE FRIDAY EVENING...WILL GO FOR DRY CONDITIONS
THROUGH THE PERIOD. FELSCH

.MSO...FIRE WEATHER WATCH FOR ALL FIRE WEATHER ZONES WEDNESDAY
       AFTERNOON AND EVENING

...7-DAY SPOT TEMPS AND POPS...
LIB UBB 053/101 057/093 056/088 36000111
     UUUU 052/092 050/090 053/096 055/099 3010000000
FCA UBB 051/096 054/090 053/087 36000111
     UUUU 048/087 048/085 052/092 053/095 3011000000
POL UBB 063/094 063/088 058/085 36000221
     UUUU 055/085 055/082 059/090 058/093 3011000000
MSO UBB 056/100 058/093 055/088 36011221
     UUUU 052/089 050/087 055/096 056/097 3010000000
HMM UBB 057/099 060/092 056/087 36011221
     BUUU 053/089 051/086 056/096 057/097 3011000000
BTM UBB 050/095 053/089 049/084 36011112
     BUUU 048/086 046/081 053/088 048/091 3011000000
ORO BBB 064/101 065/096 060/092 36111111
     UUUU 058/095 057/093 062/099 060/102 3010000000
GRV BBB 061/098 061/091 055/089 36122221
     UUUU 051/090 050/088 055/094 054/097 3011000000
SMN UBB 054/099 056/095 053/092 36011221
     BUUU 051/090 051/088 055/096 052/099 3011100000

Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 22, 5:00 AM MST, 11 hours before

MTZ001>007-043-IDZ005>010-231200-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MISSOULA MT
600 AM MDT TUE JUL 22 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WESTERN MONTANA AND NORTH
CENTRAL IDAHO

.DAY ONE... TODAY

THE HEAT WAVE WILL CONTINUE TO BE THE MAIN WEATHER HAZARD ACROSS
WESTERN MONTANA AND NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO TODAY. RECORD HIGH
TEMPERATURES MAY BE EXPERIENCED ACROSS NORTHWEST MONTANA LATE THIS
AFTERNOON.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY

FIRE DANGER WILL INCREASE ACROSS THE REGION AS THE HIGH PRESSURE
RIDGE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PERSISTENT HEAT WAVE BREAKS DOWN LATE
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. IN ADDITION...WEST WINDS WILL DEVELOP
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY AFTERNOONS AS A SURFACE THERMAL TROUGH SHIFTS
EAST OF THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE. WINDS...LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITIES AND
THE POSSIBILITY OF THUNDERSTORMS WILL CREATE PRIME WEATHER CONDITIONS
FOR FIRE GROWTH FOLLOWING THE PROLONGED DRY...HOT SPELL.

A HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE WILL REBUILD ACROSS THE AREA OVER THE WEEKEND
WITH HOT AND DRY CONDITIONS RETURNING THROUGH MONDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER
CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.

Wildfire, Lemhi

When: July 22, 4:00 PM MST
Where: Lemhi County, 17 mi W of Shoup
Deaths: 2 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: PARK/FOREST SERVICE
Coordinates: 44.943, -113.933 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Wildfire, Lemhi	2003-07-22		Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct
Wildfire, Lemhi	2003-07-22		Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct

What these are

Wildfire: A fire burning in wildland vegetation, with its acreage and damage where known.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Idaho in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history Warnings in Idaho, July 2003

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5369604.