April 27, 2022 - Wildfires in New Mexico

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The 2022 New Mexico fire season roared to an early and destructive
start, thanks to extremely low humidity, an exceptionally dry
landscape, and strong, gusty winds. As of April 19, nearly 99 percent
of the state was dealing with some level of drought, according to the
U.S. Drought Monitor, with 63 percent rated at extreme to exceptional
levels of dryness. Amid those conditions, the Inciweb Incident
Information System reported 11 fires burning across New Mexico on April
26.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of the area near the
city of Santa Fe on April 26. Each red “hot spot” marks an area where
the thermal bands on the instrument detected high temperatures. When
combined with typical smoke, such hot spots are diagnostic for actively
burning fire.

This image captures four individually-named fires, and each fire
contains numerous hot spots. This is a typical pattern seen in large
fires, especially when fires are spreading from the center outward.
Areas already burned don’t necessarily show as hot spots, but the
leading edges will. As a fire grows, it expands from the center,
creating several actively-burning areas while other areas within the
fire radius may not yet have burned. This image also shows heavy smoke
rising from most of the fires, as well as a long band of smoke
stretching across New Mexico from west to east. This lower band of
smoke, which is south of the fires in this image, likely originates
from fires in southern and southwestern New Mexico and in Arizona.

To the west of Santa Fe, the Cerro Pelado fire burns in timber and
brush in the Santa Fe National Forest. First reported on April 22, it
has burned 5,485 acres. According to Inciweb, 281 personnel are working
this fire, which is 0 percent contained. Estimated containment date is
May 5.

To the east of Santa Fe, a cluster of red hot spots mark both the
Hermit’s Peak fire and the Calf Canyon fire. The Calf Canyon fire began
on April 19, and the cause is under investigation. The Hermits Peak
ignited on April 6, and initially was a prescribed burn in part of the
Sant Fe National Forest, but erratic, gusty winds blew it out of
control. Strong winds on April 22-23 pushed the fire through steep
terrain and caused a merger with the Calf Canyon fire, creating a fire
complex with more than 180 miles of perimeter. Residents in parts of
San Miguel, Mora, and Colfax counties were told to evacuate their
homes. As of April 26, the complex fire had consumed 60,173 acres and
was 12 percent contained. With 817 personnel currently working the
blaze, the estimated containment date is July 31.

To the northeast, the Cooks Peak fire burned through 54,021 acres and
was 18 percent contained as of the morning of April 26. It began on
April 17, and the cause is under investigation.

Further east, the Mitchell Fire is burning in pinon-juniper and
grassland. It began on April 22 off of New Mexico Highway 39 near David
Hill and has burned 25,000 acres. As of April 26, the fire was reported
as 60 percent contained.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center on April 25, fourteen
large, active fires were burning across 244,000 acres in eleven states.
Since the start of 2022, at least 20,262 wildfires have burned 865,290
acres in the United States, well above the 10–year average through
April.

In research published in November 2021, scientists found that burned
acreage from wildfires in the western United States doubled between the
period of 1984–2000 and 2001–2018. They attributed the increase in fire
to a significant change in the vapor pressure deficit, a measurement of
how hot and dry the atmosphere can get. Global warming, they noted, has
been intensifying vapor pressure deficits, making vegetation more
susceptible to burning and the atmosphere more conducive to sustaining
fire. Other researchers also found that wildfires have been spreading
to higher elevations in the U.S. West in recent decades.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 4/23/2022
Resolutions: 1km (102.3 KB), 500m (214.1 KB), 250m (706.9
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=2022-04-27

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