Cedar Fire
2003268,142 acresCalifornia
The Cedar Fire burned 268,142 acres, about 419 square miles, across San Diego County. It began on October 25, 2003.
Watch how it happenedCedar Fire · 2003
How it happened
Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.
How severely it burned
Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.
| Severity | Share | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered | 52% | 139,142 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 24% | 63,582 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 12% | 32,362 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 11% | 29,306 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 1.4% | 3,748 |
52% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 139,142 acres; 76% 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.
| San Diego County | CA | 268,360 |
Other large fires in California in 2003
- Simi Fire107,745 acres
- Old Fire90,111 acres
- Piru Fire63,923 acres
- Paradise Fire55,956 acres
- Grand Prix Fire50,755 acres
- Mine/Otay Fire39,392 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.