Rainbow Fire
The Rainbow Fire burned 8,800 acres in California, in 1992. It was discovered on August 20, 1992, and contained on September 16, 1992. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 8,800 acres
- Discovered
- August 20, 1992
- Contained
- September 16, 1992
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 7,869 acres. Point of origin as reported, 37.550, -119.095.
The record
- Reported final size
- 8,800 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 7,869 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 8,358 acres
- Discovered
- August 20, 1992, 2:30 p.m. local time
- Contained
- September 16, 1992, 5:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- California
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Inyo National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- CAINF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- Unique fire identifier
- 1992-CADPP-000001
- MTBS fire identifier
- CA3759211908519920820
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-265594
- Perimeter records
- 2 on file for this fire; the largest is shown
- Note on the perimeter
- From WFMI
The three sizes are three measurements: the size the agency reported when the fire was out, the burned area MTBS drew from satellite imagery before and after, and the GIS area inside the final perimeter, unburned islands included. They rarely agree exactly.
Other large fires in California in 199212
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fountain Fire | 64,000 | Aug 20, 1992 | Human |
| Cleveland Fire | 24,580 | Sep 29, 1992 | Human |
| Gulch Fire | 18,000 | Aug 16, 1992 | Human |
| Unnamed Fire | 10,234 | Aug 21, 1992 | |
| Moccasin Fire | 8,000 | Aug 1, 1992 | Human |
| Middle Ridge Fire | 7,530 | Aug 22, 1992 | Human |
| Villa Fire | 6,700 | Sep 25, 1992 | Human |
| Burton Fire | 6,140 | Sep 25, 1992 | Human |
| Unnamed Fire | 5,337 | Aug 3, 1992 | |
| Barker Fire | 5,050 | Aug 20, 1992 | Human |
| La Paloma Fire | 4,800 | Aug 7, 1992 | Human |
| Mesa Fire | 4,200 | Apr 30, 1992 | Human |
Nearby
Sources
Perimeters from the National Interagency Fire Center’s Interagency Fire Perimeter History, compiled from the Forest Service, BLM, BIA, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, the Alaska Interagency Fire Center and CAL FIRE. Burned areas and ignition dates from Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS), a program of the US Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service. Fire reports from Short, Karen C. 2022, Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014], 6th Edition, Forest Service Research Data Archive, doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6. Records before 2014 were joined by this site: a fire report to the burned area its MTBS identifier names, a perimeter to the burned area it lies in when the names or the sizes agree.