Wildfires of 1998

Wildcat Fire

1998CaliforniaWildfire

The Wildcat Fire burned 3,568 acres in California, in 1998. It was discovered on August 31, 1998, and contained on September 2, 1998. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
3,568 acres
Discovered
August 31, 1998
Contained
September 2, 1998
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 3,620 acres. Point of origin as reported, 32.984, -116.828.

The record

Reported final size
3,568 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
3,620 acres
Discovered
August 31, 1998, 7:16 p.m. local time
Contained
September 2, 1998, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
California
Land ownership at origin
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Reporting unit
Southern California Agency
Agency
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
CA3296811685119980831
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
W-465975

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 199812

FireAcresStartCause
Edna Fire28,164Oct 5, 1998Human
Piru Fire12,613Oct 18, 1998Human
Unnamed Fire11,141
Refuge Fire9,700Aug 4, 1998Human
Unnamed Fire8,950Jun 11, 1998
Unnamed Fire7,094Sep 2, 1998
Breck Fire7,000Jul 8, 1998Human
Middle Fire6,600Aug 29, 1998Human
Unnamed Fire6,284
Juniper Fire6,000Aug 31, 1998Natural
Unnamed Fire5,341Aug 6, 1998
Weirick Fire5,000Aug 31, 1998Natural

Every fire of 1998 California 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.