Wildfires of 2003

Poplar Fire

2003ArizonaWildland fire use

The Poplar Fire burned 12,000 acres in Arizona, in 2003. It was discovered on September 4, 2003. MTBS dates its ignition to September 30, 2003. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
12,000 acres
Discovered
September 4, 2003
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 16,902 acres. Point of origin as reported, 36.320, -112.208.

The record

Reported final size
12,000 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
16,902 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
11,896 acres
Discovered
September 4, 2003, 4:00 p.m. local time
Ignition (MTBS)
September 30, 2003
Cause
Natural
State
Arizona
Land ownership at origin
National Park Service
Reporting unit
Grand Canyon National Park
Agency
National Park Service
Unit
AZGCP
Part of
Poplar Complex
Other fire reports inside the burned area
Rose
Incident type
Wildland fire use
Unique fire identifier
2003-AZGCP-000143
MTBS fire identifier
AZ3631111220120030930
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
W-251684
Perimeter records
2 on file for this fire; the largest is shown
Note on the perimeter
From WFMI

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
Picture Fire12,900Jun 17, 2003Human
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.