How long did the Kerr fire last?

It burned between 1 May 2017 and 1 May 2017: 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 3,915 hectares (39.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered Catron (3,913 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 27.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 78 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class 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 · 2017-05-01 → 2017-05-01

Kerr Fire, May 2017 Catron

Out · last detection 2 May 2017, 19:53 UTC

The fire started on 1 May 2017 in Catron, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 3,915 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 39th largest in New Mexico since 2016 (of 204 with a page). Number 169 in United States in 2017, of 619.

Burnt area: 3,915ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 1 May 2017 – 1 May 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 1 May; 2017
Heat detections: 402; in a single hotspot: 105 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 149MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 May1 May

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

27°high

78km/h · peak gust

9%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 29 May.

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

3,913 ha reached on 2 May

0.2 %

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)
1 May	20.0 °C	15 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
2 May after	21.6 °C	15 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
3 May after	21.5 °C	12 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
4 May after	24.0 °C	15 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
5 May after	24.1 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
6 May after	23.0 °C	20 %	58 km/h	3.7 mm	Low 9
7 May after	19.0 °C	14 %	66 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
8 May after	15.6 °C	24 %	59 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 16
9 May after	13.3 °C	17 %	60 km/h	1.7 mm	Low 9
10 May after	9.5 °C	46 %	53 km/h	5.1 mm	Very low 1
11 May after	18.5 °C	26 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
12 May after	21.7 °C	21 %	40 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 16
13 May after	22.3 °C	14 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
14 May after	19.7 °C	14 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 May after	19.0 °C	12 %	68 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
16 May after	12.0 °C	24 %	64 km/h	0.3 mm	High 29
17 May after	16.4 °C	23 %	69 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
18 May after	15.1 °C	18 %	70 km/h	2.6 mm	Low 10
19 May after	15.5 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
20 May after	20.3 °C	13 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
21 May after	24.3 °C	9 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
22 May after	22.0 °C	12 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
23 May after	22.9 °C	13 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 May after	27.3 °C	9 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
25 May after	23.2 °C	9 %	78 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
26 May after	22.6 °C	10 %	68 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
27 May after	24.1 °C	7 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
28 May after	23.7 °C	7 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
29 May after	22.0 °C	17 %	38 km/h	1.9 mm	Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Apr 2017

After · 8 May 2017

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 · 402Every 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 Kerr fire last?: It burned between 1 May 2017 and 1 May 2017: 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 3,915 hectares (39.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered Catron (3,913 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 27.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 78 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class 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 ↗

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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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