Cato Fire
The Cato Fire burned 27,677 acres in Johnson County, Wyoming, in 2012. It was discovered on June 25, 2012, and contained on July 3, 2012. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 27,677 acres
- Discovered
- June 25, 2012
- Contained
- July 3, 2012
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 26,808 acres. Point of origin as reported, 44.440, -106.468.
The record
- Reported final size
- 27,677 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 26,808 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 27,693 acres
- Discovered
- June 25, 2012, 3:00 p.m. local time
- Contained
- July 3, 2012, 4:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- Wyoming
- County
- Johnson County
- Land ownership at origin
- Private
- Reporting unit
- Buffalo Field Office
- Agency
- Bureau of Land Management
- Unit
- WYJOX
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- Unique fire identifier
- 2012-WYBFD-012120
- MTBS fire identifier
- WY4444010643420120625
- MTBS assessment
- Initial
- Fire occurrence record
- W-637993
- Perimeter map method
- GPS-Flight
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 Wyoming in 201212
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arapaho Fire | 98,115 | Jun 27, 2012 | Natural |
| Fontenelle Fire | 65,220 | Jun 24, 2012 | Human |
| Oil Creek Fire | 61,416 | Jun 29, 2012 | Human |
| Alpine Lake Fire | 45,877 | Aug 9, 2012 | Natural |
| North Buffalo Fire | 29,950 | Aug 24, 2012 | Human |
| Sheep Herder Hill Complex | 15,556 | Sep 9, 2012 | Human |
| Sawmill Canyon Fire | 14,140 | Jul 14, 2012 | Human |
| Squirrel Creek Fire | 10,517 | Jun 30, 2012 | Human |
| Bear Mountain Complex | 8,796 | Jul 27, 2012 | Natural |
| Cow Camp Fire | 8,334 | Jun 4, 2012 | Natural |
| Gilead Fire | 8,189 | Aug 14, 2012 | Natural |
| Bear Cub Fire | 6,493 | Jul 3, 2012 | Natural |
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.