Cerro Pelado Fire

202245,605 acresNew Mexico

The Cerro Pelado Fire burned 45,605 acres, about 71 square miles, across Sandoval County. It began on April 22, 2022.

Watch how it happened

Cerro Pelado Fire · 2022

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
Detections4,989satellite fire pixels

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 Cerro Pelado Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered2.1%965
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive17%7,652
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive70%32,030
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change11%4,958

2% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 965 acres; 19% 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.

Acres burned by county
Sandoval CountyNM45,616

Other large fires in New Mexico in 2022

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