Cato Fire
200953,699 acresNew Mexico
The Cato Fire burned 53,699 acres, about 84 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on June 10, 2009.
Watch how it happenedCato Fire · 2009
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 64% | 34,575 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 5.1% | 2,735 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 31% | 16,389 |
Most of the area inside the perimeter burned at low severity or not at all.
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.
| Chaves County | NM | 53,717 |
| Lea County | NM | 12 |
Other large fires in New Mexico in 2009
- Pasco Fire104,041 acres
- Diamond Fire32,056 acres
- Four Mile Fire27,585 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.