Wildfires of 2003

Big Creek Fire

2003MontanaWildfire

The Big Creek Fire burned 1,350 acres in Montana, in 2003. It was discovered on July 19, 2003, and contained on November 1, 2003. The cause was recorded as recreation and ceremony.

Size
1,350 acres
Discovered
July 19, 2003
Contained
November 1, 2003
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,339 acres. Point of origin as reported, 46.452, -114.201.

The record

Reported final size
1,350 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
1,339 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
1,127 acres
Discovered
July 19, 2003, 12:00 p.m. local time
Contained
November 1, 2003, 12:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Recreation and ceremony
State
Montana
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Bitterroot National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
MT4645711421620030719
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-390053

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 200312

FireAcresStartCause
Missouri Breaks Complex125,900Jul 19, 2003Natural
Germaine Fire66,497
Robert Fire57,273Jul 23, 2003Human
Wedge Canyon Fire50,981Jul 18, 2003Natural
Lincoln Complex (Snowbank) Fire37,405Aug 13, 2003Natural
Hobble Fire36,180Aug 8, 2003Natural
Indian Fire33,955
Fish Creek Complex (Thompson Creek) Fire33,948Aug 10, 2003Natural
Big Coulee Fire29,492
Cooney Ridge Fire25,680Aug 8, 2003Natural
Littlehawk Fire25,490Aug 12, 2003Natural
Mineral-Primm (Mineral and Primm) Fire25,202Aug 9, 2003Natural

Every fire of 2003 Montana 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.