Wildfires of 2003

Cedar Fire

2003CaliforniaWildfire

The Cedar Fire burned 280,059 acres in California, in 2003. It was discovered on October 25, 2003, and contained on November 4, 2003. The cause was recorded as recreation and ceremony.

Size
280,059 acres
Discovered
October 25, 2003
Contained
November 4, 2003
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 268,142 acres. Point of origin as reported, 32.986, -116.728.

The record

Reported final size
280,059 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
268,142 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
270,686 acres
Discovered
October 25, 2003, 5:45 p.m. local time
Contained
November 4, 2003, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Recreation and ceremony
State
California
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Cleveland National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
CACNF
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
CA3293911676620031025
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-393571

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 200312

FireAcresStartCause
Simi Fire108,204Oct 25, 2003
Old Fire91,281Oct 25, 2003Human
Piru Fire63,720Oct 23, 2003Human
Grand Prix Fire59,788Oct 21, 2003Human
Paradise Fire56,427Oct 26, 2003Human
Mine/Otay Fire47,921Oct 26, 2003Human
Annie Fire30,170Aug 25, 2003Natural
Coyote Fire19,576Jul 16, 2003Natural
Honeydew Fire13,846Sep 3, 2003Natural
Local Fire12,000Feb 23, 2003Human
Canoe Fire11,036Sep 3, 2003Natural
Padua Fire10,446Oct 25, 2003Human

Every fire of 2003 California 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.