Wildfires of 2003

Dry Lake Complex (Dry Lakes) Fire

2003New MexicoWildfire

The Dry Lake Complex (Dry Lakes) Fire burned 65,000 acres in New Mexico, in 2003. It was discovered on May 31, 2003, and contained on December 1, 2003. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
65,000 acres
Discovered
May 31, 2003
Contained
December 1, 2003
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 114,154 acres. Point of origin as reported, 33.102, -108.402.

The record

Reported final size
65,000 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
114,154 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
65,077 acres
Discovered
May 31, 2003, 10:30 a.m. local time
Contained
December 1, 2003, 9:00 a.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
New Mexico
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Gila National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
NMGNF
Part of
Dry Lake Complex
Other fire reports inside the burned area
Moonshine, Turnbo
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2003-NMGNF-000023
MTBS fire identifier
NM3322510843320030531
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-394003
Perimeter map method
GPS - Differentially Corrected Data

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 200312

FireAcresStartCause
Unnamed Fire38,998Jun 18, 2003
Boiler Fire34,941Apr 28, 2003Natural
Moonshine Fire27,647
Turnbo Fire18,865
Unnamed Fire13,523Jun 8, 2003Natural
Molina Fire7,165Jun 22, 2003Natural
Unnamed Fire6,561Jul 4, 2003
Capulin Fire6,529Jun 23, 2003Natural
Jenny Fire6,520Jun 22, 2003Natural
Spruce Fire5,719Jul 11, 2003Natural
Encebado Fire5,373Jul 4, 2003Natural
Seco Fire5,300Jun 20, 2003Natural

Every fire of 2003 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.