Missouri Breaks Complex
2003137,971 acresMontana
The Missouri Breaks Complex burned 137,971 acres, about 216 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 19, 2003.
Watch how it happenedMissouri Breaks Complex · 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 | 8.5% | 11,682 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 28% | 39,119 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 45% | 62,697 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 18% | 24,182 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.2% | 291 |
8% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 11,682 acres; 37% 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.
| Garfield County | MT | 137,900 |
| Petroleum County | MT | 46 |
Other large fires in Montana in 2003
- Robert Fire54,531 acres
- Wedge Canyon Fire51,995 acres
- Hobble Fire38,340 acres
- Lincoln Complex (Snowbank)36,976 acres
- Fish Creek Complex (Thompson Creek)33,782 acres
- Little Salmon Creek Fire33,042 acres
- Littlehawk Fire27,920 acres
- Bartlett Mountain Fire27,613 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.