Frying Pan Ranch Fire

2011106,264 acresNew Mexico and Texas

The Frying Pan Ranch Fire burned 106,264 acres, about 166 square miles, across 3 counties. It began on April 14, 2011.

Watch how it happened

Frying Pan Ranch Fire · 2011

How it happened

Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.

About this replay

Date (UTC)—Historical replay

Burned so far—acres

High severity—of the area so far

Detections133satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

Burn severityHigh, Moderate, Low, Unburned to low, Increased greenness

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

Washington, D.C., to scale61 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (133 MODIS) inside the final perimeter; each place takes the time of its nearest detection, so the order is satellite-observed but interpolated between passes, roughly every 12 hours. Severity: Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS, U.S. Forest Service), mapped from Landsat after the fire.

How severely it burned

Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.

Map of burn severity across the Frying Pan Ranch Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	11%	11,253
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	69%	73,101
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	21%	21,907

No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 11% burned at moderate 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.

Acres burned by county

Andrews County	TX	105,845
Lea County	NM	225
Winkler County	TX	181

Other large fires in New Mexico and Texas in 2011

Wallow Fire563,564 acres
Rock House Fire299,011 acres
Deaton Cole Fire167,650 acres
Cooper Mountain Ranch Fire157,828 acres
Las Conchas Fire150,816 acres
Wildcat Fire150,117 acres
Swenson Fire136,718 acres
Pk Complex128,450 acres

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.