Bartlett Mountain Fire

200327,613 acresMontana

The Bartlett Mountain Fire burned 27,613 acres, about 43 square miles, across Powell County. It began on August 16, 2003.

Watch how it happened

Bartlett Mountain Fire · 2003

How it happened

Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.

About this replay
Date (UTC)—Historical replay
Burned so far—acres
High severity—of the area so far
Detections317satellite fire pixels

How severely it burned

Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.

Map of burn severity across the Bartlett Mountain Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered32%8,880
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive24%6,508
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive25%6,783
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change15%4,147
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.4%122
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images4.2%1,173

32% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 8,880 acres; 56% burned at moderate or high severity.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (U.S. Geological Survey and USDA Forest Service). Classes come from the change in a Landsat burn index (dNBR) between images before and after the fire; acres are each class’s share of the fire’s mapped area.

Where it burned

Acres inside each county, measured from the satellite-mapped perimeter.

Acres burned by county
Powell CountyMT27,613

Other large fires in Montana in 2003

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.