Wildfires of 1990

Big Fire

1990New MexicoWildfire

The Big Fire burned 24,753 acres in New Mexico, in 1990. MTBS dates its ignition to May 13, 1990.

Size
24,753 acres
Ignition
May 13, 1990

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 24,753 acres. MTBS's point for the fire, 32.061, -104.701.

The record

Burned area mapped by MTBS
24,753 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
18,485 acres
Ignition (MTBS)
May 13, 1990
State
New Mexico
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
NMLNF
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
1990-NMLNF-000016
MTBS fire identifier
NM3206110470119900513
MTBS assessment
Initial (SS)
Perimeter map method
Digitized From Hardcopy PBS/SEQ
Note on the perimeter
Perimeter hand drawn then digitized

The three sizes are three measurements: the size the agency reported when the fire was out, the burned area MTBS drew from satellite imagery before and after, and the GIS area inside the final perimeter, unburned islands included. They rarely agree exactly.

Other large fires in New Mexico in 199012

FireAcresStartCause
Culberson Fire33,758
Unnamed Fire6,596Jun 23, 1990
Redondo Fire5,406Jun 21, 1990
Solada Fire3,418Jun 2, 1990
Hilo-Peak Fire2,908Jun 27, 1990
Obar Fire2,892Feb 8, 1990
Unnamed Fire2,784Jun 23, 1990
Mine Fire2,552Jun 30, 1990
Sophia Fire2,445Apr 16, 1990
Gileslee Fire2,353Jun 5, 1990
Unnamed Fire2,222Apr 4, 1990
Wilson Fire2,078Jun 28, 1990

Every fire of 1990 New Mexico fire history

Nearby

Sources

Perimeters from the National Interagency Fire Center’s Interagency Fire Perimeter History, compiled from the Forest Service, BLM, BIA, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, the Alaska Interagency Fire Center and CAL FIRE. Burned areas and ignition dates from Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS), a program of the US Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service. Records before 2014 were joined by this site: a fire report to the burned area its MTBS identifier names, a perimeter to the burned area it lies in when the names or the sizes agree.