Wildfires of 2012

Little Sand Fire

2012Archuleta County, ColoradoWildfire

The Little Sand Fire burned 24,931 acres in Archuleta County, Colorado, in 2012. It was discovered on May 14, 2012, and contained on August 30, 2012. MTBS dates its ignition to May 13, 2012. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
24,931 acres
Discovered
May 14, 2012
Contained
August 30, 2012
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 26,252 acres. Point of origin as reported, 37.403, -107.243.

The record

Reported final size
24,931 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
26,252 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
24,931 acres
Discovered
May 14, 2012, 2:57 p.m. local time
Ignition (MTBS)
May 13, 2012
Contained
August 30, 2012, 12:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Colorado
County
Archuleta County
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
San Juan National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
COSJF
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2012-COSJF-000133
MTBS fire identifier
CO3740210724320120513
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-1508739
Perimeter map method
Infrared Interpretation

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 Colorado in 201212

FireAcresStartCause
High Park Fire87,275Jun 9, 2012Natural
Last Chance Fire45,000Jun 25, 2012
Heartstrong Fire24,000Mar 18, 2012Human
Waldo Canyon Fire18,947Jun 23, 2012Human
Pine Ridge Fire13,920Jun 27, 2012Natural
Weber Fire10,133Jun 22, 2012Human
Hewlett Fire7,702
Sunrise Mine Fire5,742May 25, 2012Human
Wolf Fire5,126Aug 3, 2012Natural
Lower North Fork Fire4,142Mar 26, 2012Human
Fern Lake Fire3,498Oct 9, 2012
Wetmore Fire1,998Oct 23, 2012Human

Every fire of 2012 Colorado 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.