Whitewater-Baldy Fire
2012307,528 acresNew Mexico
The Whitewater-Baldy Fire burned 307,528 acres, about 481 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on May 16, 2012.
Watch how it happenedWhitewater-Baldy Fire · 2012
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 | 12% | 36,185 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 13% | 38,941 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 30% | 91,246 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 45% | 138,406 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.9% | 2,749 |
12% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 36,185 acres; 24% 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 | 275,448 |
| Grant County | NM | 31,475 |
Other large fires in New Mexico in 2012
- Little Bear Fire37,913 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.