Wildfires of 1996

Alkalie Fire

1996MontanaWildfire

The Alkalie Fire burned 10,031 acres in Montana, in 1996. It was discovered on September 11, 1996, and contained on September 15, 1996.

Size
10,031 acres
Discovered
September 11, 1996
Contained
September 15, 1996
Cause
Undetermined

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 10,049 acres. Point of origin as reported, 47.416, -107.933.

The record

Reported final size
10,031 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
10,049 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
10,032 acres
Discovered
September 11, 1996, 6:30 p.m. local time
Contained
September 15, 1996, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Undetermined
State
Montana
Land ownership at origin
Fish and Wildlife Service
Reporting unit
Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Unit
MTNRC
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
MT4740910798019960911
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
FWS-1996MTCMR6494

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 Montana in 199612

FireAcresStartCause
Powderville Fire62,000Aug 17, 1996Natural
Rosebud Creek Fire30,700Aug 5, 1996Natural
Shepard Mtn Fire14,890Aug 25, 1996Natural
Rollover Fire10,095Oct 13, 1996Human
Colfax Fire7,162Aug 1, 1996Human
Dover Ranch Fire4,500Aug 18, 1996Natural
Laststand Fire4,290Jul 22, 1996Human
Coyote Pnf Fire4,283Jun 26, 1996Natural
WarriorsFace Fire4,104Jul 4, 1996Natural
Sharpsfire Fire4,000Aug 14, 1996Natural
Ft. Keogh Fire3,500Aug 9, 1996Natural
Robinson Fire3,500Aug 17, 1996Natural

Every fire of 1996 Montana fire history

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.