Wildfires of 2003

Picture Fire

2003ArizonaWildfire

The Picture Fire burned 12,900 acres in Arizona, in 2003. It was discovered on June 17, 2003, and contained on July 2, 2003. The cause was recorded as recreation and ceremony.

Size
12,900 acres
Discovered
June 17, 2003
Contained
July 2, 2003
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 13,526 acres. Point of origin as reported, 33.934, -111.151.

The record

Reported final size
12,900 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
13,526 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
12,546 acres
Discovered
June 17, 2003, 6:30 a.m. local time
Contained
July 2, 2003, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Recreation and ceremony
State
Arizona
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Tonto National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
AZTNF
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2003-AZTNF-000061
MTBS fire identifier
AZ3397311111720030617
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-388694
Perimeter map method
Other Agency Digital

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 Arizona in 200312

FireAcresStartCause
Aspen Fire82,440Jun 17, 2003Human
Kinishba Fire24,109Jul 13, 2003Natural
Poplar Fire12,000Sep 4, 2003Natural
Thomas Fire10,644Jun 6, 2003Natural
Unnamed Fire7,912Jun 23, 2003
Steeple Fire6,105Jul 12, 2003Natural
Lizard Fire5,270Jun 7, 2003Natural
Skeleton Fire4,300Jul 15, 2003Natural
Powell Fire3,611Jun 15, 2003Natural
Helens 2 Fire3,597Jun 17, 2003Natural
Rose Fire3,483
Mosca Fire3,066Jan 8, 2003

Every fire of 2003 Arizona 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.