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Black Fire, May 2022 Sierra, Grant, Catron

Out · last detection 17 Jun 2022, 08:34 UTC

The fire started on 14 May 2022 in Sierra, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 132,898 hectares, spread across 3 counties.

It is the 2th largest in New Mexico since 2016 (of 204 with a page). Number 2 in United States in 2022, of 493.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Round · 2017Corral · 2017South · 2019Black · 2019

Burnt area
132,898ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
≈ 35days
14 May 2022 – 17 Jun 2022
Counties hit
3
counties
Started on
14 May
2022
Heat detections
13,848
in a single hotspot: 1,458 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
6.5GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 May17 Jun
17 Jun 2022

How it evolved, day by day

14 May 2022 · 1,055 MW · 46 15 May 2022 · 3,242 MW · 146 16 May 2022 · 22,767 MW · 469 17 May 2022 · 33,730 MW · 1499 18 May 2022 · 15,286 MW · 932 19 May 2022 · 13,336 MW · 693 20 May 2022 · 5,630 MW · 540 21 May 2022 · 4,164 MW · 340 22 May 2022 · 6,645 MW · 612 23 May 2022 · 8,096 MW · 788 24 May 2022 · 9,172 MW · 471 25 May 2022 · 10,179 MW · 560 26 May 2022 · 7,140 MW · 614 27 May 2022 · 12,613 MW · 641 28 May 2022 · 5,122 MW · 894 29 May 2022 · 12,727 MW · 422 30 May 2022 · 6,328 MW · 409 31 May 2022 · 3,757 MW · 351 1 Jun 2022 · 2,918 MW · 254 2 Jun 2022 · 909 MW · 257 3 Jun 2022 · 2,519 MW · 194 4 Jun 2022 · 7,402 MW · 212 5 Jun 2022 · 3,929 MW · 467 6 Jun 2022 · 3,381 MW · 284 7 Jun 2022 · 3,915 MW · 301 8 Jun 2022 · 1,328 MW · 280 9 Jun 2022 · 419 MW · 32 10 Jun 2022 · 157 MW · 6 11 Jun 2022 · 360 MW · 106 12 Jun 2022 · 15 MW · 3 13 Jun 2022 · 2,804 MW · 282 14 Jun 2022 · 10,407 MW · 209 15 Jun 2022 · 2,621 MW · 216 16 Jun 2022 · 2,718 MW · 234 17 Jun 2022 · 118 MW · 84
14 May 17 May 19 May 24 May 29 May 3 Jun 8 Jun 13 Jun

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

31°high
74km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.0 mm on 18 Jun.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,259 ha in 2017, 1,669 ha in 2019.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 84% of the area of London (1,329 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each county

  1. Sierra where it started
    83,132 ha reached on 15 May
    7.5 %
  2. Grant
    35,126 ha reached on 14 May
    3.4 %
  3. Catron
    15,110 ha reached on 14 May
    0.8 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area12 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 12 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
14 May 27.1 °C 3 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 May 28.0 °C 3 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 May 27.9 °C 4 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
17 May 26.3 °C 6 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 May 27.3 °C 5 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 May 26.4 °C 7 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
20 May 23.9 °C 9 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
21 May 24.0 °C 9 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 May 19.1 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 May 22.7 °C 9 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 May 20.9 °C 5 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
25 May 25.1 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 May 28.1 °C 6 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 May 28.4 °C 6 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
28 May 26.7 °C 4 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
29 May 22.9 °C 8 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
30 May 23.1 °C 10 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
31 May 25.8 °C 7 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Jun 27.9 °C 6 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Jun 26.4 °C 10 % 44 km/h 1.0 mm Very high 45
3 Jun 26.5 °C 7 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Jun 26.3 °C 7 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Jun 28.3 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Jun 30.6 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Jun 30.9 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Jun 30.9 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 55
9 Jun 27.5 °C 18 % 46 km/h 1.1 mm Very high 39
10 Jun 30.9 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.9 mm Very high 44
11 Jun 30.7 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 50
12 Jun 29.9 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Jun 28.4 °C 13 % 58 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 62
14 Jun 28.3 °C 11 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Jun 30.7 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jun 29.2 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 56
17 Jun 24.5 °C 33 % 50 km/h 2.5 mm Moderate 15
18 Jun after 23.2 °C 41 % 42 km/h 8.0 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 7 May 2022
After · 24 Jun 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 13,848Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Black Fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (14 May 2022). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 17 June 2022 (35 days from 14 May 2022), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 132,898 hectares (1,329.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 3 counties: Sierra (83,132 ha, 7.5 %); Grant (35,126 ha, 3.4 %); Catron (15,110 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the official burnt perimeter of United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC, public domain), NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United States. It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: MTBS (US Geological Survey and US Forest Service), official.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 13,848 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

Where this data comes from

The perimeter is official and in the public domain. For past years it comes from MTBS (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), run by the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service, which map it on Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery. For the current and last year it comes from WFIGS at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): incident perimeters mapped by fire crews, aircraft and imagery. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. County boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per county is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.