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Fire Information - Wildland Fire Statistics
Wildland Fire Season 2003
Wildland fire potential indicators predicted above-normal activity for large fires in northern Idaho, Montana, the Northwest, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin areas as early as January. Much of the southeastern states expected to experience below normal fire potential for the 2003 season.
By the first of April, snow-pack levels for the West were below normal. March through mid-May was much wetter than normal at the lower elevations in the West, except for the Southwest, but a heat wave and very dry weather prevailed the latter half of May. Despite the heating and drying of late spring, the wetter than normal conditions delayed the onset of significant fire activity. On May 31, more than 400,000 acres had burned, which was about half of the ten-year average for that date. Fire season was off to a slow start.
As spring turned to summer, a strong and persistent ridge of high pressure dominated the weather pattern over the West. This pattern led to a deeper than normal low pressure system over the eastern United States . These conditions resulted in one of the hottest and driest summers in the West and one of the coolest and wettest summers in the East.
Fire danger indices climbed rapidly by early July across many other areas in the interior West. This was the warmest summer ever in Nevada , second hottest in Oregon , and third warmest for Idaho . Several cities set all-time record highs. Washington reported its driest summer on record and New Mexico its driest for July. Areas east of the Mississippi River experienced one of their top ten wettest summers.
Fire activity in Arizona and New Mexico escalated in May and continued well into July. Firefighters battled more than 2,800 fire starts in the Southwest. The Aspen fire near Tucson , Arizona , ignited on June 17, spread rapidly forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate. Residents of Summerhaven were devastated by the fire that destroyed 323 homes. The fire was contained on July 18 at nearly 85,000 acres.
A series of lightning storms sparked 3,660 fires between July 20 and 31 throughout the Northwest, Northern Rockies, and Eastern Great Basin . By the end of July, several fires in western Montana forced hundreds of residents to evacuate and threatened facilities and structures in Glacier National Park . Smoke impacted areas as far as Canada .
The National Preparedness Level, the condition or degree of being ready to cope with a potential fire situation, was at PL 4 on July 20 and increased to PL 5 on July 24. The National Preparedness Level remained at PL 5 for 39 days.
On August 1, more than 30 large fires burned in 11 western states causing a competition for fire suppression resources. By August 24, an Army battalion from Fort Hood , Texas , was needed to assist civilian firefighting crews on the firelines in Montana . More help was requested from our foreign partners in Australia and New Zealand, and by August 27, more than 50 operations management personnel were assigned to fires in western Montana.
The Northern Rockies experienced serious fire conditions. More than 700,000 acres burned and 96 structures destroyed. Nearly 20,000 firefighters and support personnel were assigned at the peak of activity.
By mid-September, the large fires in the Northern Rockies were contained. The number of fires nationally were reported at 72 percent and acres burned at 80 percent of the ten-year average.
California experienced extreme fire activity driven by the Santa Ana winds in late October. Fifteen large fires consumed more than 750,000 acres. According to the San Bernardino Fire Information Joint Information Center and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, 3,640 homes, 33 commercial properties, and 1,141 other structures were destroyed by these destructive fires.
Once the southern California fires were controlled, fire activity decreased as did the demand for resources.
At the conclusion of the 2003 fire season, 85,943 fires had burned a total of 4.9 million acres, which is just slightly above the 10-year average of 4.6 million acres burned.
The number of structures destroyed by wildland fires, however, was quite devastating. A total of 5,781 structures were burned. Of that number 4,090 were primary residences, 51 were commercial buildings and 1,640 were miscellaneous outbuildings.
