Whitewater Fire
The Whitewater Fire burned 1,652 acres in Valley County, Montana, in 2002. It was discovered on April 15, 2002, and contained on April 16, 2002. The cause was recorded as debris and open burning.
- Size
- 1,652 acres
- Discovered
- April 15, 2002
- Contained
- April 16, 2002
- Cause
- Human
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,753 acres. Point of origin as reported, 48.690, -107.452.
The record
- Reported final size
- 1,652 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 1,753 acres
- Discovered
- April 15, 2002, 4:00 p.m. local time
- Contained
- April 16, 2002, 8:00 a.m. local time
- Cause
- Human, Debris and open burning
- State
- Montana
- County
- Valley County
- Land ownership at origin
- Private
- Reporting unit
- North Central Montana District
- Agency
- Bureau of Land Management
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- MT4868510743220020415
- MTBS assessment
- Initial
- Fire occurrence record
- W-112687
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 200212
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kraft Springs Fire | 69,900 | Aug 30, 2002 | Natural |
| KraftSprings Fire | 69,447 | ||
| Line Creek Fire | 9,700 | Jun 28, 2002 | Natural |
| Fox Creek Fire | 6,300 | Jul 11, 2002 | Natural |
| Red Waffle Fire | 5,859 | Jul 14, 2002 | Human |
| Cow Creek Fire | 5,495 | Sep 4, 2002 | Natural |
| Pishkun Fire | 5,000 | Feb 21, 2002 | Human |
| Unnamed Fire | 4,277 | Sep 4, 2002 | Natural |
| Steamboat Fire | 2,921 | Jul 16, 2002 | Human |
| Sheep Creek Fire | 2,016 | Aug 15, 2002 | Natural |
| Brushlake Fire | 1,200 | May 3, 2002 | Human |
| Cap Rock 2 Fire | 1,000 | Apr 13, 2002 | Natural |
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.