Walnut Fire
200230,395 acresNew Mexico
The Walnut Fire burned 30,395 acres, about 47 square miles, across Hidalgo County. It began on June 27, 2002.
Watch how it happenedWalnut 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 | 0.5% | 158 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 20% | 5,950 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 51% | 15,566 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 20% | 6,042 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 8.8% | 2,679 |
1% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 158 acres; 20% 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.
| Hidalgo County | NM | 30,388 |
Other large fires in New Mexico in 2002
- Ponil Complex89,018 acres
- Middle Fire37,163 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.