Wildfires of 2012

Cottonwood Fire

2012Sioux County, NebraskaWildfire

The Cottonwood Fire burned 4,100 acres in Sioux County, Nebraska, in 2012. It was discovered on June 17, 2012, and contained on June 22, 2012. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
4,100 acres
Discovered
June 17, 2012
Contained
June 22, 2012
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 3,922 acres. Point of origin as reported, 42.736, -103.729.

The record

Reported final size
4,100 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
3,922 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
4,161 acres
Discovered
June 17, 2012, 11:37 a.m. local time
Contained
June 22, 2012, 8:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Nebraska
County
Sioux County
Land ownership at origin
State
Reporting unit
Nebraska Forest Service
Agency
Forest Service
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
NE4273610372920120617
MTBS assessment
Initial (SS)
Fire occurrence record
ICS209_2012-NE-NES-120420

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 Nebraska in 201212

FireAcresStartCause
Region 24 Complex66,745Jul 20, 2012Natural
Keith County Complex60,000Aug 2, 2012Natural
West Ash Fire56,471Aug 28, 2012Natural
Douthit Fire29,730Aug 28, 2012Natural
Wellnitz Fire28,800Aug 31, 2012Natural
Turner Tatanka Fire19,000Aug 2, 2012Natural
Unnamed Fire18,020Sep 8, 2012
Unnamed Fire7,980Jul 15, 2012
Unnamed Fire6,380Jul 23, 2012Natural
Unnamed Fire6,011Jul 15, 2012
Unnamed Fire5,303Sep 8, 2012
Unnamed Fire4,793Sep 8, 2012

Every fire of 2012 Nebraska 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.