Needles Fire
The Needles Fire burned 21,300 acres in Okanogan County, Washington, in 2003. It was discovered on August 5, 2003, and contained on October 30, 2003. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 21,300 acres
- Discovered
- August 5, 2003
- Contained
- October 30, 2003
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 21,455 acres. Point of origin as reported, 48.600, -120.667.
The record
- Reported final size
- 21,300 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 21,455 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 21,305 acres
- Discovered
- August 5, 2003, 3:00 p.m. local time
- Contained
- October 30, 2003, 4:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- Washington
- County
- Okanogan County
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- WAOWF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- WA4864912062420030805
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-393192
- Perimeter map method
- Digitized Other
- Perimeter records
- 2 on file for this fire; the largest is shown
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 Washington in 200312
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fawn Peak Complex (Farewell) Fire | 81,343 | Jun 30, 2003 | Natural |
| Umtanum Ridge Fire | 20,000 | Jul 24, 2003 | Human |
| Rattlesnake Canyon Fire | 10,500 | Jul 4, 2003 | Human |
| Hatten Road Fire | 7,209 | Jul 27, 2003 | Human |
| Togo Mountain Fire | 5,285 | Aug 15, 2003 | Natural |
| Juniper Dunes Fire | 5,200 | Aug 6, 2003 | Natural |
| Isabel Fire | 4,535 | Sep 7, 2003 | Natural |
| Mineral Park Fire | 3,654 | Aug 15, 2003 | Natural |
| Ahtanum Ridge Fire | 2,675 | Jun 27, 2003 | Human |
| Maple Fire | 2,409 | Sep 5, 2003 | Natural |
| Bigbeaver Fire | 2,301 | Aug 5, 2003 | Natural |
| Black Canyon Fire | 2,287 | Aug 10, 2003 | Human |
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.