How long did the Buzzard fire last?

It burned between 22 May 2018 and 22 May 2018: 1 day, according to the start date recorded by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) and the heat detections seen by satellite.

How much area did it burn?

The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 20,650 hectares (206.5 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered Catron (20,617 ha, 1.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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.

US · United States · 2018-05-22 → 2018-05-22

Buzzard Fire, May 2018 Catron

Out · last detection 23 May 2018, 20:56 UTC

The fire started on 22 May 2018 in Catron, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 20,650 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 8th largest in New Mexico since 2016 (of 204 with a page). Number 36 in United States in 2018, of 511.

Burnt area: 20,650ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 22 May 2018 – 22 May 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 22 May; 2018
Heat detections: 2,921; in a single hotspot: 387 MW
Danger at start: 60; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 10.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 May 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 May22 May

How it evolved, day by day

2223

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

The weather it burned in

33°high

66km/h · peak gust

4%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.0 mm on 29 Jun.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Catron where it started

20,617 ha reached on 22 May

1.2 %

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

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)
22 May	22.1 °C	8 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
23 May after	23.4 °C	10 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
24 May after	25.6 °C	7 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
25 May after	27.5 °C	6 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
26 May after	24.5 °C	8 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
27 May after	23.7 °C	6 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
28 May after	25.2 °C	5 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
29 May after	27.7 °C	8 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
30 May after	24.5 °C	12 %	63 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
31 May after	26.7 °C	4 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
1 Jun after	27.6 °C	4 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
2 Jun after	28.5 °C	7 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
3 Jun after	27.0 °C	8 %	66 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 73
4 Jun after	29.6 °C	6 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
5 Jun after	28.9 °C	5 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
6 Jun after	27.7 °C	10 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
7 Jun after	28.3 °C	10 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
8 Jun after	28.4 °C	9 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
9 Jun after	23.6 °C	15 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
10 Jun after	27.9 °C	6 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
11 Jun after	30.3 °C	6 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
12 Jun after	31.8 °C	4 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
13 Jun after	29.6 °C	6 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
14 Jun after	28.3 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.1 mm	Extreme 52
15 Jun after	25.7 °C	23 %	37 km/h	0.8 mm	High 33
16 Jun after	18.9 °C	51 %	50 km/h	16.7 mm	Very low 2
17 Jun after	23.7 °C	23 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
18 Jun after	28.1 °C	13 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
19 Jun after	30.2 °C	5 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
20 Jun after	30.8 °C	6 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Jun after	32.6 °C	6 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Jun after	32.4 °C	5 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
23 Jun after	31.7 °C	6 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
24 Jun after	29.6 °C	8 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
25 Jun after	29.9 °C	8 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
26 Jun after	32.2 °C	5 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
27 Jun after	31.9 °C	6 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
28 Jun after	29.3 °C	10 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
29 Jun after	27.5 °C	15 %	47 km/h	4.0 mm	Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 15 May 2018

After · 29 May 2018

Before After

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 · 2,921Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Buzzard fire last?: It burned between 22 May 2018 and 22 May 2018: 1 day, according to the start date recorded by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) and the heat detections seen by satellite.
How much area did it burn?: The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 20,650 hectares (206.5 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered Catron (20,617 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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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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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.

Where it burned