Wildfire — Southwest Mountains, New Mexico

2025-06-11 to 2025-06-17 · Southwest Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

The Buck Fire was discovered in an extremely remote area of Catron County near Pelona Mountain southwest of Magdalena, NM. The fire burned mainly through wilderness area on private land along and northwest of highway 163 reaching 57,736 acres by June 17th. No damage and destruction of property was reported.

Wider weather episode

Dry lightning strikes were observed during the middle portions of the week of June 11th, starting the Buck Fire in an extremely remote section of Catron County south of Pelona Mountain. Dry virga showers and a few isolated dry thunderstorms producing gusty and erratic winds allowed the fire to rapidly grow Friday June 13th and through the weekend from roughly 550 acres to over 33,000 acres by Sunday June 15th and to a final size of 57,736 acres by June 17th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1258767. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.