Little Salmon Creek Fire

200333,042 acresMontana

The Little Salmon Creek Fire burned 33,042 acres, about 52 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 18, 2003.

Watch how it happened

Little Salmon Creek 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
Detections315satellite 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 Little Salmon Creek Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered17%5,567
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive25%8,241
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive36%11,966
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change22%7,143
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.4%124

17% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 5,567 acres; 42% 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 CountyMT17,580
Flathead CountyMT15,463

Other large fires in Montana in 2003

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