Bear Trap Fire
202238,222 acresNew Mexico
The Bear Trap Fire burned 38,222 acres, about 60 square miles, across Socorro County. It began on May 1, 2022.
Watch how it happenedBear Trap Fire · 2022
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 | 5.2% | 1,975 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 13% | 4,962 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 61% | 23,315 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 21% | 7,955 |
5% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 1,975 acres; 18% 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.
| Socorro County | NM | 38,204 |
Other large fires in New Mexico in 2022
- Hermits Peak Fire351,782 acres
- Black Fire328,399 acres
- Cooks Peak Fire61,143 acres
- Cerro Pelado Fire45,605 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.