May 28, 2022 - Blazes Continue to Scorch New Mexico
New Mexico
Tweet
Share
Fueled by high temperatures, low humidity, gusting winds, and a
lingering two-decade megadrought, multiple large fires have more than a
half-million acres in New Mexico as of May 27, 2022. A "Fuels and Fire
Behavior Advisory" released by the National Interagency Fire Center on
May 18 summed up the cause of the disastrous fire season this way,
“expanding drought conditions coupled with very hot and dry weather,
extreme wind events, and unstable atmospheric conditions have led to
explosive fire behavior in the region.” In parts of Arizona and New
Mexico, “conditions like this have not been seen since the mid-1950s.”
The situation has not improved since that advisory. On May 19, the U.S.
Drought Monitor reported that at least 85 percent of New Mexico was
experiencing extreme to exceptional drought—and on May 26, an updated
report stated that New Mexico received little or no precipitation in
the last week.
On May 26, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on
board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of two fires
burning in southwestern New Mexico. Each red “hot spot” marks an area
where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high
temperatures. In this case, the hot spots are caused by actively
burning fire.
A large blacked area (burn scar) can be seen in the lower section of
the image, and two lines of active fire flank the burn scar. This is
the Black Fire, which ignited on May 13 in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness
Area about 30 miles northwest of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. On
May 16, the fire “blew up” – a term indicating a sudden increase in
fire intensity or rate of spread—to triple in size. The Black Fire’s
blow-up increased the size from 18,000 acres to more than 56,000 acres
as it crossed the Continental Divide.
On May 22, the Black Fire became the second-largest fire burning in New
Mexico, covering 130,000 acres. By May 27, the acreage burnt increased
to 191,459 and, according to a report on InciWeb Incident Information
System, the fire was averaging an increase of 15,000 acres a day.
Increasingly hot, dry, and breezy winds out of the west-southwest are
expected to increase torching, spotting, and fire activity over the
next few days, despite firefighters working day and night to suppress
the extremely active fire. The National Interagency Fire Center notes
that 51 structures are at risk, with 2 structures destroyed. The Black
Fire was only 13 percent contained as of May 27.
A smaller fire, the Bear Trap Fire, burns to the northeast of the Black
Fire. This fire started on May 1, in timber located about 22 miles
southwest of Magdalena, New Mexico. As of May 27, the fire scorched
38,091 Acres and was 41 percent contained. The cause of the fire is
under investigation.
Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 5/26/2022
Resolutions: 1km (32.6 KB), 500m (114.2 KB), 250m (381.1
KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-05-28
--- up 12 weeks, 5 days, 20 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)