Wildfires of 1998

Sandburn Fire

1998MontanaWildfire

The Sandburn Fire burned 5,680 acres in Montana, in 1998. It was discovered on May 17, 1998, and contained on May 21, 1998. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
5,680 acres
Discovered
May 17, 1998
Contained
May 21, 1998
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 4,300 acres. Point of origin as reported, 47.409, -107.836.

The record

Reported final size
5,680 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
4,300 acres
Discovered
May 17, 1998, 3:00 p.m. local time
Contained
May 21, 1998, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Montana
Land ownership at origin
Bureau of Land Management
Reporting unit
Miles City Field Office
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
MT4742210787619980517
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-6586

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 199812

FireAcresStartCause
Bradshaw Fire20,921Aug 31, 1998Natural
Challenge Fire8,800Sep 2, 1998Natural
Kootenai Complex (Mcdonald) Fire8,758Aug 30, 1998Natural
Boyer Creek Fire7,038Sep 2, 1998Human
Burnt Shed Fire6,356Sep 8, 1998Natural
Herman Rid Fire4,926Sep 1, 1998Natural
Bitterroot Complex (North Rye) Fire3,950Sep 2, 1998Human
Dome Fire3,340Sep 2, 1998Natural
Bowl Mtn Fire3,070Aug 9, 1998Natural
Pocket Creek Fire2,395May 27, 1998Natural
Garfield Fire2,050Jul 14, 1998Natural
Cherry Spg Fire2,000Aug 31, 1998Natural

Every fire of 1998 Montana fire history

Nearby

Sources

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.