With hundreds of structures already lost amid a growing number of wind-driven wildfires across drought-stricken New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham warned Saturday of a long and potentially devastating wildfire season.
One wildfire in northern New Mexico that started on April 6 merged with a newer fire Saturday to form the second-largest blaze in the state at more than 171 square kilometers (66 square miles), leading to widespread evacuations in Mora and San Miguel counties, reports CTV News Canada.
The two wildfires were driven by winds over 75 mph (121 kph), and ended up destroying more than 200 buildings, state authorities said.
Another wind-driven wildfire in northern New Mexico that began April 17 has charred at least 197 square kilometers (76 square miles) of ponderosa pine, oak brush, and grass north of Ocate, an unincorporated community in Mora County.
The severity and sheer number and size of the wildfires, so early in the season have raised concerns the region will be in for a brutal fire year as a decades-long drought combined with abundant dry vegetation.
“We have a longer, more dangerous, and more dramatic fire season ahead of us,” New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham told reporters, according to Reuters, adding that the state had 20 active fires following Friday’s “unprecedented” wind storm.
Climate change has lowered winter snowpacks and allowed larger and more extreme fires to start earlier in the year, according to scientists. Precipitation in 2021 was at the lowest 20-month level documented since 1895, according to a government agency.
As of Saturday, New Mexico had the most major wildfires burning of any state, though neighboring Arizona also had large fires including the Tunnel Fire near Flagstaff that burned 30 homes earlier this week.
