Littlehawk Fire

200327,920 acresMontana

The Littlehawk Fire burned 27,920 acres, about 44 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on August 12, 2003.

Watch how it happened

Littlehawk 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
Detections97satellite 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 Littlehawk Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered16%4,361
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive32%8,848
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive41%11,340
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change12%3,285
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.3%86

16% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 4,361 acres; 47% 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
Big Horn CountyMT27,797
Rosebud CountyMT128

Other large fires in Montana in 2003

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