Wildfires of 2009

Meissner Fire

2009Chouteau County, MontanaWildfire

The Meissner Fire burned 14,490 acres in Chouteau County, Montana, in 2009. It was discovered on January 31, 2009, and contained on February 8, 2009. The cause was recorded as debris and open burning.

Size
14,490 acres
Discovered
January 31, 2009
Contained
February 8, 2009
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 12,311 acres. Point of origin as reported, 47.446, -110.377.

The record

Reported final size
14,490 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
12,311 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
14,507 acres
Discovered
January 31, 2009, 2:00 a.m. local time
Contained
February 8, 2009, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Debris and open burning
State
Montana
County
Chouteau County
Land ownership at origin
Private
Reporting unit
North Central Montana District
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Unit
MTNRC
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
MT4744611037720090131
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-586509
Note on the perimeter
Corrected GPS coordinates or equivalent precision

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 20098

FireAcresStartCause
Kootenai Creek Fire6,990Jul 12, 2009Natural
Table Mountain Fire5,280Sep 13, 2009Natural
Indian Trail Fire4,409Sep 9, 2009Human
Gird End Fire2,514Sep 9, 2009Natural
Lawrence Mountain Fire2,400Sep 2, 2009Natural
Lily Lake Fire2,120Aug 13, 2009Natural
Bielenburg Fire1,950Jul 12, 2009Natural
Gabe Creek Fire1,932Jul 30, 2009Natural

Every fire of 2009 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.