Started on Aug 15, 2026.
United States todayLive
True view
Fire view
Fire view (right): infrared (SWIR), sees through smoke and brings out the heat.
🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 brown = already burned
🟠 orange = fire right now
Drag to compare: normal photo on the left, heat brought out on the right.
Green: vegetationBrown: already burnedOrange: fire right nowSentinel-2 · Copernicus
Red dots: heat detected by satellite in the last 48h. NASA FIRMS
Quick facts
- Location
- 40 miles northeast of Roswell, NM
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 6 people
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Brush (2 feet)
- How it's behaving
- Minimal
- Jurisdiction
- BLM · Federal land
Glossary: what each term means
Barely moving. Low, thin smoke.
Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.
Moves slowly, hugging the ground.
Spreads with low, steady flames.
Spreading evenly and steadily, with visible flame.
Fast and unpredictable.
Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.
Grows along the sides, not head-on.
Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.
Climbs into the treetops and jumps crown to crown. It can't be attacked from the ground.
Climbs into the crowns in bursts and drops back down.
Whole trees flaring up like torches.
Single scattered trees flaring up whole, like torches.
Whole clumps of trees flaring at once.
Wind carries embers through the air and starts new fires ahead of the front: that is how a fire jumps a road or a firebreak.
The wind pushes it in long runs in one direction.
The ones marked ● are the behaviors that make a fire harder to stop. They are not a warning or an instruction: they are the description written by the agency in charge. For decisions, always follow your emergency services.
Spanning two days of burning with an average daily growth of approximately 1,040 acres, the active Cato 2 Fire has reached 2,080 acres in Chaves County, New Mexico, located 40 miles northeast of Roswell. Satellites in the area are picking up a moderate heat signature, reflecting the ongoing activity of the blaze as it burns through two-foot brush on federal land managed by the BLM. Containment efforts have reached 60 percent, with eight personnel assigned to the Type 4 incident under a Type 4 IC.
The naturally caused fire unfolds within a regional fire season that typically runs from June to October. Across the country, the broader wildfire landscape shows 2,921,034 hectares burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 47 percent below the two-decade average. Operations on the Cato 2 Fire continue as crews work toward full containment with an accumulated cost of $20,000.
In context
This wildfire burned in New Mexico for 2 days. In total it burned about 2,080 acres — around 8.4 km².
In the Northern Hemisphere, wildfire activity usually peaks during the warm, dry months — roughly May through October.
The bigger picture in United States
Across United States, roughly 3,318,049 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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Community reports
Reports from people near the fire · unverified
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Not official emergency information. In an emergency, contact fire services/authorities.
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