Wildfires of 2003

Aspen Fire

2003Pima County, ArizonaWildfire

The Aspen Fire burned 82,440 acres in Pima County, Arizona, in 2003. It was discovered on June 17, 2003, and contained on July 15, 2003. The cause was recorded as human.

Size
82,440 acres
Discovered
June 17, 2003
Contained
July 15, 2003
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 79,639 acres. Point of origin as reported, 32.430, -110.772.

The record

Reported final size
82,440 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
79,639 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
69,370 acres
Discovered
June 17, 2003, 3:00 p.m. local time
Contained
July 15, 2003, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Undetermined
State
Arizona
County
Pima County
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Coronado National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
AZCNF
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
AZ3243311077720030617
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-391207

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 Arizona in 200312

FireAcresStartCause
Kinishba Fire24,109Jul 13, 2003Natural
Picture Fire12,900Jun 17, 2003Human
Poplar Fire12,000Sep 4, 2003Natural
Thomas Fire10,644Jun 6, 2003Natural
Unnamed Fire7,912Jun 23, 2003
Steeple Fire6,105Jul 12, 2003Natural
Lizard Fire5,270Jun 7, 2003Natural
Skeleton Fire4,300Jul 15, 2003Natural
Powell Fire3,611Jun 15, 2003Natural
Helens 2 Fire3,597Jun 17, 2003Natural
Rose Fire3,483
Mosca Fire3,066Jan 8, 2003

Every fire of 2003 Arizona 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.