Wildfire — Far Northeast Highlands, New Mexico

2025-03-14 to 2025-03-15 · Far Northeast Highlands, New Mexico

Event narrative

High winds and elevated fire weather conditions resulted in a downed utility line on private land in Mora County east of I-25 and south of Wagon Mound that resulted in a fast moving wildfire. Discovered at 12:05pm local time, the Mogote Hill fire quickly raced east-southeastward across grasslands growing to 21,300 acres by March 15th. The wildfire prompted evacuations from two homes along a NM 271. Precipitation and lesser winds allowed crews to gain control and put out the fire by March 15th.

Wider weather episode

An unseasonably and record deep upper trough for mid-March moved through the intermountain West late on March 13th closing off into a deep upper low on March 14th. Strong south to southwest winds ahead of the trough resulted in blowing dust across southern Chaves County resulting in the closure of NM Highway 2 at Hagerman. The Pacific front moved through the state during the overnight hours of March 13th into March 14th. Subsidence behind the Pacific front combined with strong mid and upper-level winds at the base of this trough, a strong pressure gradient south and west of the newly formed upper low and 975 mb surface low across the central Great Plains resulted in widespread high wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph across central New Mexico from the early morning to around midday and across eastern New Mexico during the morning through mid afternoon hours. These wind gusts behind the Pacific front resulted in wind damage across several zones in eastern New Mexico along with widespread blowing dust across the Lower Rio Grande Valley and eastern New Mexico. Strong and dangerous westerly crosswinds even closed down I-25 from Las Vegas to Raton during the late morning to mid afternoon hours. Winds and blowing dust subsided during the late afternoon and early evening hours as the strong storm system and associated higher mid and upper-level winds, exited east of the state.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1235066. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.