Wildfires of 1998

Mesa Fire

1998New MexicoWildfire

The Mesa Fire burned 2,421 acres in New Mexico, in 1998. It was discovered on March 26, 1998, and contained on March 26, 1998. The cause was recorded as human.

Size
2,421 acres
Discovered
March 26, 1998
Contained
March 26, 1998
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 2,581 acres. Point of origin as reported, 34.050, -104.763.

The record

Reported final size
2,421 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
2,581 acres
Discovered
March 26, 1998, 3:03 p.m. local time
Contained
March 26, 1998, 9:13 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Undetermined
State
New Mexico
Land ownership at origin
Bureau of Land Management
Reporting unit
Roswell Field Office
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
NM3405710474419980326
MTBS assessment
Initial (SS)
Fire occurrence record
W-7624

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 199812

FireAcresStartCause
Buckeye Fire16,080Jun 16, 1998
Unnamed Fire12,987Nov 13, 1998
Burleson Fire11,002May 3, 1998
Unnamed Fire10,350May 5, 1998
Unnamed Fire7,774May 5, 1998
Keith Fire6,000
Rinker Fire5,199
Oso Fire5,185Jun 27, 1998Human
Heather Fire5,000Jul 14, 1998
Bs Fire4,404Sep 28, 1998Natural
Beard Fire4,323May 10, 1998
Unnamed Fire3,540Jul 15, 1998

Every fire of 1998 New Mexico fire history

Nearby

Sources

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.