Robert Fire
200354,531 acresMontana
The Robert Fire burned 54,531 acres, about 85 square miles, across Flathead County. It began on July 23, 2003.
Watch how it happenedRobert 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 | 22% | 12,150 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 27% | 14,462 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 28% | 15,521 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 8.6% | 4,706 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.2% | 125 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 14% | 7,568 |
22% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 12,150 acres; 49% 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.
| Flathead County | MT | 54,500 |
Other large fires in Montana in 2003
- Missouri Breaks Complex137,971 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.