Wildfire — Jemez Mountains, New Mexico

2022-04-22 to 2022-04-30 · Jemez Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

The Cerro Pelado Fire began during the afternoon hours of April 22nd approximately seven miles east of Jemez Springs. With very high winds in the area, this fire rapidly spread, and by the morning of April 23rd, it had grown to 4,688 acres. Evacuation orders were quickly given for Sierra de Los Pinos and other communities near the Cerro Pelado Fire. This fire even prompted the closure of New Mexico State Road 4 that leads to Los Alamos. Within a matter of days, this wildfire began to move into the burn scar of the 2011 Las Conchas Fire, the 2013 Thompson Ridge Fire, and the 2017 Cajete Fire. As a persistent windy pattern continued through the remainder of the month of April, this fire only rapidly spread. After the next very windy event on April 29th, the fire had spread to 15,650 acres with only 15 percent containment. By the end of the month on April 30th, the fire had burned 17,885 acres with containment now down to 10 percent. Three homes were destroyed by this fire, but no information has been given as to what day those homes were lost. Many other homes and structures remain threatened by this fire. Damages are estimated.

Wider weather episode

As a very strong low pressure system tracked into California on April 22, 2022, it steered an incredibly potent upper-level jet across New Mexico. Winds at 250mb within this jet reached 90 to 100 knots while at 700mb, these westerly winds strengthened to 50 to 60 knots. Meanwhile, deep atmospheric mixing along with a deepening surface low over northern Colorado only helped to enhance surface wind speeds. This set the stage for a widespread damaging wind event across all of northern and central New Mexico. 60 to 70 mph winds were common for several hours across all of northern and central New Mexico with higher gusts of 80 to 95 mph measured across the northern high terrain and northeast highlands. These strong winds created extensive areas of blowing dust, especially across western and central New Mexico. Numerous sites, such as Farmington, Gallup, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, reported reduced visibility to less than one quarter mile at times. This caused poor travel conditions, and major highways like Interstate 25 near Santa Fe were forced to close due to several traffic accidents. With exceptionally dry conditions persisting, this set the stage for a catastrophic fire weather day with with at least twenty new fire starts. The ongoing Cooks Peak, Hermits Peak, and Calf Canyon wildfires experienced exceptional growth underneath these high winds and exploded in size within hours. The Calf Canyon Fire threatened numerous communities across Mora and San Miguel counties, prompting numerous evacuations for many residents.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1012113. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.