Wildfires of 1997

Rocky Fire

1997New MexicoWildfire

The Rocky Fire burned 4,000 acres in New Mexico, in 1997. It was discovered on April 21, 1997, and contained on August 1, 1997. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
4,000 acres
Discovered
April 21, 1997
Contained
August 1, 1997
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 4,194 acres. Point of origin as reported, 33.115, -107.998.

The record

Reported final size
4,000 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
4,194 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
4,193 acres
Discovered
April 21, 1997, 10:02 a.m. local time
Contained
August 1, 1997, 4:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
New Mexico
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Gila National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
NMGNF
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
1997-NMGNF-000013
MTBS fire identifier
NM3312210797419970421
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-327441
Perimeter map method
Remote Sensing Data - Broad Level

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 199712

FireAcresStartCause
Perez Fire38,000Mar 16, 1997
Lilly Fire25,000Apr 27, 1997Natural
Horton Fire25,000Mar 3, 1997
Caprock Fire10,240Jan 3, 1997
Unnamed Fire9,427Mar 7, 1997
Garita Fire8,000Mar 13, 1997
Rabbit Fire7,600
Langstroth Fire5,800
CR-50 Fire5,760Jun 2, 1997
Rinker Fire5,200Mar 24, 1997
Ubar Fire3,220Jan 30, 1997
Batespastu Fire3,199Mar 18, 1997

Every fire of 1997 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. Fire reports from Short, Karen C. 2022, Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014], 6th Edition, Forest Service Research Data Archive, doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6. 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.