Since April, New Mexico has been experiencing a wildfire season with nearly half the state listed in extreme drought intensity or higher, according to a June 3 U.S. Drought Monitor map.
Drought symptoms have intensified across southwest New Mexico with fire activity increasing in late May, according to a national wildfire report released by the National Interagency Fire Center on June 1.
Due to very dry fuel conditions in the shrubs and trees as well as above-average grass loading, the potential for significant fires is expected to be above normal across southwest and south central New Mexico in June, according to the report.
In recent years, April and May have been active wildfire months in New Mexico. Two of the state’s largest wildfires in history — the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Fire and the Black Fire — erupted within this period in 2022, nearly a month apart.
The Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Fire, resulted from the merging of two separate controlled burns. It blazed across northern New Mexico in April, scorching 341,735 acres in the San Miguel, Mora and Taos counties, the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s history, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association.
May and June are the peak of wildfire season in New Mexico, sometimes extending into July depending on when monsoon season begins, according to George Ducker, Communications and Public Information Specialist for the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Forestry Division.
Since 2022’s Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Fire, the Forestry Division has reorganized to treat April through July as a statewide fire season, Ducker said.
The EMNRD works with the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration to formulate what fire seasons will look like and do ground analysis of soil moisture levels and analyze precipitation records from the winter seasons, Ducker said.
The 2025 season has been a typical one, with the exception of almost 400 recorded fire starts so far and 29,000 acres burned, usually through small fire starts that don’t individually burn large amounts of acreage, according to Ducker.
“Last year, by this point, we had about 250 starts approximately, and those starts consumed 21,500 acres,” Ducker said. “So, we had more starts this year by this point, but the acreage has pretty much stayed the same. In 2023 we saw a lot more starts and a lot more acres being burned.”
Nearly 85% of wildland fires in the United States are caused by humans through actions such as leaving campfires unattended, equipment use and malfunctions, negligently discarded cigarettes and intentional acts of arson, according to the National Park Service.
The high winds and dust storms earlier this year raised concerns that such conditions could lead to those of the 2022 season, which saw sustained weeks of high winds that factored heavily into the rapid explosion of the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon fire, according to Ducker.
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During the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Fire, multiple days of 30-60 mph winds made it difficult to fight the fire with aviation equipment, Ducker said.
However, the high winds and dust storms in March died down, lessening the concerns for the 2025 season, Ducker said.
“We're always concerned about wildfire outbreaks pretty much any time of year, but especially during these peak months right now,” Ducker said. “We have had drought in New Mexico for decades to one degree or another — some years are more severe than others. However, it's safe to say that we live under a constant state of drought conditions here in New Mexico.”
Maria Fernandez is a beat reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo.
