Wildfires of 2003

Moon Creek Fire

2003Custer County, MontanaWildfire

The Moon Creek Fire burned 3,189 acres in Custer County, Montana, in 2003. It was discovered on August 12, 2003, and contained on August 16, 2003. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
3,189 acres
Discovered
August 12, 2003
Contained
August 16, 2003
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 3,312 acres. Point of origin as reported, 46.101, -106.098.

The record

Reported final size
3,189 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
3,312 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
3,189 acres
Discovered
August 12, 2003, 10:29 a.m. local time
Contained
August 16, 2003, 11:53 a.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Montana
County
Custer County
Land ownership at origin
State
Reporting unit
Miles City Field Office
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Unit
MTNRC
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
MT4610410611120030812
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
W-118728
Perimeter map method
Image Interpretation
Note on the perimeter
Pre-existing shp, positioned from old georef m

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.