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North Fire, May 2016 Socorro

Out · last measured on 21 May 2016

The fire started on 21 May 2016 in Socorro, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 13,990 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 14th largest in New Mexico since 2016 (of 204 with a page). Number 29 in United States in 2016, of 475.

Burnt area
13,990ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
21 May 2016 – 21 May 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
21 May
2016
Heat detections
1,725
in a single hotspot: 413 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 May21 May

The weather it burned in

32°high
64km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 23 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Socorro where it started
    13,987 ha reached on 23 May
    0.8 %

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)
21 May 23.1 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 May after 23.3 °C 9 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 May after 23.2 °C 9 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 May after 22.0 °C 8 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 May after 22.0 °C 9 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 May after 17.9 °C 10 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 May after 19.0 °C 13 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 May after 22.4 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 May after 24.7 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 May after 22.0 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
31 May after 21.4 °C 14 % 27 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 15
1 Jun after 19.6 °C 37 % 34 km/h 4.3 mm Very low 4
2 Jun after 24.0 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
3 Jun after 28.4 °C 7 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Jun after 27.1 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
5 Jun after 28.7 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Jun after 28.3 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Jun after 28.7 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Jun after 28.8 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Jun after 29.3 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 46
10 Jun after 29.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 46
11 Jun after 24.9 °C 30 % 36 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 16
12 Jun after 26.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Jun after 27.1 °C 11 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Jun after 27.9 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Jun after 29.1 °C 5 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Jun after 29.6 °C 5 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Jun after 30.3 °C 4 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Jun after 32.3 °C 4 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Jun after 32.2 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Jun after 30.1 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Jun after 30.3 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 50
22 Jun after 31.6 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Jun after 29.0 °C 22 % 43 km/h 3.8 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 May 2016
After · 28 May 2016

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 · 1,725Every 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 North fire last?
It burned between 21 May 2016 and 21 May 2016: 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 13,990 hectares (139.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Socorro (13,987 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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

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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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

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.