Wildfires of 2003

Olerud Fire

2003Ransom County, North DakotaWildfire

The Olerud Fire burned 943 acres in Ransom County, North Dakota, in 2003. It was discovered on March 24, 2003, and contained on March 24, 2003. The cause was recorded as debris and open burning.

Size
943 acres
Discovered
March 24, 2003
Contained
March 24, 2003
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,278 acres. Point of origin as reported, 46.455, -97.341.

The record

Reported final size
943 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
1,278 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
942 acres
Discovered
March 24, 2003, 12:30 p.m. local time
Contained
March 24, 2003, 9:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Debris and open burning
State
North Dakota
County
Ransom County
Land ownership at origin
State or Private
Reporting unit
Dakota Prairie National Grasslands
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
NDDPF
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2003-NDDPF-000002
MTBS fire identifier
ND4644909729720030324
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
FS-393181
Perimeter map method
GPS - Differentially Corrected Data

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 North Dakota in 20037

FireAcresStartCause
Mcclean Bottoms Fire6,000Apr 9, 2003Human
Dawson Fire3,000Aug 17, 2003Human
Kensel 1 Fire1,760Apr 12, 2003Human
Kruse Fire1,509Oct 8, 2003
Wilton Fire1,500Aug 23, 2003Natural
Unnamed Fire1,400Oct 21, 2003Human
Aspen Fire1,293May 1, 2003

Every fire of 2003 North Dakota 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.