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Aconchi fire, February 2022 Aconchi, Rayón, San Felipe de Jesús

Out · last detection 16 Feb 2022, 09:45 UTC

The fire started on 10 February 2022 in Aconchi, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,120 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 68th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 130 in Mexico in 2022, of 235.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,120ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
10 Feb 2022 – 16 Feb 2022
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
10 Feb
2022
Heat detections
141
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
584MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Feb 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Feb16 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

21°high
58km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Aconchi where it started
    995 ha reached on 10 Feb
    2.7 %
  2. Rayón
    772 ha reached on 13 Feb
    0.9 %
  3. San Felipe de Jesús
    360 ha reached on 12 Feb
    2.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 10 February 2022 and burned 975 ha (the satellite measured 2,120 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

CONAFOR (Comisión Nacional Forestal), estadística de incendios forestales en datos.gob.mx (CC BY 4.0). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
10 Feb 18.4 °C 16 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
11 Feb 19.6 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
12 Feb 20.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
13 Feb 21.3 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Feb 21.3 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Feb 18.8 °C 15 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Feb 7.1 °C 32 % 57 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 5
17 Feb after 13.0 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
18 Feb after 16.4 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
19 Feb after 19.1 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Feb after 17.3 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 Feb after 10.7 °C 40 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
22 Feb after 13.7 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
23 Feb after 12.8 °C 34 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
24 Feb after 13.0 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
25 Feb after 13.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Feb after 17.2 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 3 Feb 2022
After · 23 Feb 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 141Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Aconchi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 February 2022 and 16 February 2022: 7 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,120 hectares (21.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Aconchi (995 ha, 2.7 %); Rayón (772 ha, 0.9 %); San Felipe de Jesús (360 ha, 2.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 21.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mexico (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.