Skeleton Fire
The Skeleton Fire burned 8,591 acres in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, in 2009. It was discovered on May 30, 2009, and contained on June 9, 2009. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 8,591 acres
- Discovered
- May 30, 2009
- Contained
- June 9, 2009
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 6,877 acres. Point of origin as reported, 31.564, -109.006.
The record
- Reported final size
- 8,591 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 6,877 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 8,590 acres
- Discovered
- May 30, 2009, 1:00 p.m. local time
- Contained
- June 9, 2009, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- New Mexico
- County
- Hidalgo County
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Coronado National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- NM3158910901520090530
- MTBS assessment
- Initial
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-1477441
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 200912
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pasco Fire | 95,000 | Jun 10, 2009 | Natural |
| Cato Fire | 55,080 | Jun 10, 2009 | Natural |
| Four Mile Fire | 29,952 | Apr 23, 2009 | Natural |
| Unnamed Fire | 25,747 | Mar 30, 2009 | Human |
| Diamond Fire | 22,000 | May 28, 2009 | Natural |
| Picacho Fire | 16,141 | Mar 4, 2009 | Human |
| Vista Fire | 13,969 | May 15, 2009 | Natural |
| East Transwestern Fire | 13,500 | May 15, 2009 | Natural |
| Fresquez 2 Fire | 10,094 | May 15, 2009 | Natural |
| Willow Fire | 9,000 | May 30, 2009 | Natural |
| Black Butte Fire | 7,836 | Aug 4, 2009 | Natural |
| Meason Fire | 7,055 | Jun 1, 2009 | Natural |
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.