Wildfire season is in full swing in the southwestern region of the United States. The image above shows the Whitewater-Baldy Fire Complex, a large blaze burning in a mountainous part of Gila National Forest in western New Mexico. The rapidly expanding fire, which started with a lightning strike, had burned more than 10,000 acres (16 square miles) by May 24, 2012. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired the image at 2:40 p.m. local time (20:40 UTC) on May 23, 2012.
Read more at earthobservatory.nasa.gov
InciWeb reports that this fire is being fueled by mixed conifer, ponderosa pine, pinon/juniper, grass and plenty of deal vegetation within its perimeter. As of 2:00 pm on Wednesday, the fire had grown to 170,272 acres and was burning on all flanks. In some areas extreme fire behavior with running, torching and spotting was observed by firefighters. Spot fires flared up to a mile away from the main burn, including multiple spot fires across FR 141.
In communities of Mogollon and Willow Creek, which are still under mandatory evacuation, fire crews continued to provide structure protection throughout the day.
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