Middle Fire
200237,163 acresNew Mexico
The Middle Fire burned 37,163 acres, about 58 square miles, across Catron County. It began on March 31, 2002.
Watch how it happenedMiddle Fire · 2002
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 | 0.6% | 221 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 10% | 3,748 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 88% | 32,822 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 1.0% | 369 |
1% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 221 acres; 11% 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.
| Catron County | NM | 37,096 |
Other large fires in New Mexico in 2002
- Ponil Complex89,018 acres
- Walnut Fire30,395 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.