Wildfires of 2012

North Pass Fire

2012Mendocino County, CaliforniaWildfire

The North Pass Fire burned 41,983 acres in Mendocino County, California, in 2012. It was discovered on August 18, 2012, and contained on October 16, 2012. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
41,983 acres
Discovered
August 18, 2012
Contained
October 16, 2012
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 43,653 acres. Point of origin as reported, 39.866, -123.129.

The record

Reported final size
41,983 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
43,653 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
41,813 acres
Discovered
August 18, 2012, 12:44 p.m. local time
Contained
October 16, 2012, 11:59 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
California
County
Mendocino County
Reporting unit
Mendocino National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
CAMNF
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
CA3986612313320120818
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-1510215
Perimeter records
3 on file for this fire; the largest is shown
Note on the perimeter
aka Pass MEU 005763

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 California in 201212

FireAcresStartCause
Rush Fire315,579Aug 12, 2012Natural
Chips Fire75,431Jul 29, 2012Human
Lost Fire61,298Aug 5, 2012Natural
Bagley Fire46,011Aug 18, 2012Natural
Mill Fire29,502Jul 7, 2012Human
Reading Fire28,079Jul 23, 2012Natural
Ponderosa Fire27,676Aug 18, 2012Natural
Fort Complex22,283Aug 5, 2012Natural
Sixteen Complex17,944Sep 4, 2012Human
Indian Fire12,575Aug 8, 2012Natural
Wilson Fire12,043Aug 13, 2012
Jawbone Complex12,018Aug 10, 2012Natural

Every fire of 2012 California 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.