Wildfires of 2002

Hwy 79 Complex

2002South DakotaWildfire

The Hwy 79 Complex burned 1,000 acres in South Dakota, in 2002. It was discovered on September 4, 2002. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
1,000 acres
Discovered
September 4, 2002
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,197 acres. Point of origin as reported, 43.957, -103.153.

The record

Reported final size
1,000 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
1,197 acres
Discovered
September 4, 2002
Cause
Natural
State
South Dakota
Land ownership at origin
Private
Reporting unit
Rapid Valley Volunteer Fire Department
Agency
State or local agency
Part of
Hwy 79 Complex
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
SD4395910316520020904
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
SFO-2002SDSDS3306

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 South Dakota in 200212

FireAcresStartCause
Laplante Fire14,224Jun 29, 2002Human
Battle Creek Fire12,443Aug 16, 2002Human
Grizzly Gulch Fire11,589Jun 29, 2002Human
Wanna Fire7,505Aug 18, 2002Human
Russell Ehlers Fire7,000Feb 2, 2002Human
Cottonwood Fire6,656Aug 3, 2002Human
Evergreen Fire4,000Jun 29, 2002Human
Potato Creek Fire3,708Apr 17, 2002Human
Looking Fire3,004Jul 29, 2002Human
Painter Fire2,500Jul 16, 2002Human
Travers Fire2,400Jul 16, 2002Human
Cedar Canyon Fire2,000Jul 14, 2002Human

Every fire of 2002 South Dakota 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.