Image above: number of wildfires and acres burned in New Mexico between 2000 and 2015.
Below is an excerpt from a summary of the 2015 wildfire activity in New Mexico. The complete article posted on the Albuquerque New Mexico NOAA web page, has much, much, MUCH more information, mostly related to weather and how it influenced the occurrence and behavior of fires.
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Wildfire ignitions across New Mexico were the lowest since a complete record began in 2000. Despite the lower overall numbers there were a few heightened periods of fire activity.
Many areas experienced extensive grass and fine fuel growth during the 2014 growing season while the 2014/15 winter snowpack was sporadic and moisture found within the mountain snowpack was largely below normal. The result was active lowland fire activity during the pre-growing season period of February to mid April. Timely and sometimes extensive wetting events from mid April through the early summer led to a robust green-up and muted fire danger levels. Strong wind events accompanied by low humidity, an unstable atmosphere and an ignition source were also lacking. May through early July generally represents the height of the fire season but just as much fire activity occurred during the pre-greenup and monsoon periods versus the traditional height of the fire season. Fire managers took advantage of the lower fire danger and allowed lightning ignited fires to grow and spread naturally. Sometimes these fires lasted one to three months. Several long-duration managed fires occurred across the state. Notable fires included the Red Canyon (17,843 acres) southwest of Magdalena and the Commissary (2,536 acres) southwest of Las Vegas (Fig. 1). Several more occurred across the Gila region – the most notable was the Moore Fire which burned 3,670 acres. In some cases, incident management teams were ordered to manage the larger fires.
Despite a robust monsoon across the majority of the state, a few dry pockets developed. Large wildfires during the monsoon season are generally rare but on occasion weather, fuel and an ignition source align. Two such examples occurred during 2015. The Fort Craig Fire, along the Rio Grande south of Socorro, was caused by a human source on July 26th and burned nearly 700 acres before being put out ten days later. The Navajo River Fire near Dulce started on August 18th and burned nearly 1400 acres in almost one month’s time.
Prescribed burn activity during the fall period was sporadic due to a few extensive wetting events. There were a few active periods when fire managers could take advantage of the proper alignment of ventilation and dried fuels. The growing season ended later than normal with some lowland areas containing live fuel into early November. The later fall may have also impacted some of the larger broadcast burns due to the green fuel. December ended with mainly pile burns, although a few broadcast grass burns were conducted across the eastern plains before significant snow impacted the area. Graphs found in Figures 2 and 3 show yearly acreage and wildfire ignition trends. Acreage and ignition values for 2015 place the year among the lowest since 2000.
