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Álamos fire, May 2021 Álamos

Out · last detection 20 May 2021, 21:00 UTC

The fire started on 12 May 2021 in Álamos, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,669 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 22th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 24 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.

Burnt area
6,669ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
12 May 2021 – 20 May 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 May
2021
Heat detections
460
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 May 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 May20 May

How it evolved, day by day

121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
51km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 2 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Álamos where it started
    6,701 ha reached on 12 May
    1.0 %

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 12 May 2021 and burned 4,622 ha (the satellite measured 6,669 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)
12 May 31.1 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 May 31.5 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 May 31.9 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 May 29.7 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 May 29.9 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 May 28.6 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 May 27.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 May 28.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 May 30.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 May after 28.4 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 May after 30.2 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 May after 30.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 May after 30.3 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 May after 30.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 May after 31.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 May after 31.5 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 May after 32.5 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 May after 31.5 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 May after 30.8 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 May after 31.1 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Jun after 32.3 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Jun after 30.3 °C 27 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 May 2021
After · 27 May 2021

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 · 460Every 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 Álamos fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 May 2021 and 20 May 2021: 9 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 6,669 hectares (66.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Álamos (6,701 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very 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.