Altar fire, October 2020 Mexico
The fire started on 7 October 2020 in Altar, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,429 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 25th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 19 in Mexico in 2020, of 243.
- Burnt area
- 6,429ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 7 Oct 2020 – 11 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 0
- municipalities
- Started on
- 7 Oct
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 221
- in a single hotspot: 84 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 434 ha in 2016, 633 ha in 2018.
- 633 ha Altar fire, February 2018 1,381 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 432 ha Choulic 2 fire, October 2016 489 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Brown fire, June 2016 6,342 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct | 34.0 °C | 7 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 8 Oct | 32.3 °C | 8 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 9 Oct | 31.4 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 10 Oct | 29.5 °C | 12 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 11 Oct | 27.9 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Oct after | 31.4 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Oct after | 33.4 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Oct after | 31.6 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 15 Oct after | 31.2 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Oct after | 34.1 °C | 9 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Oct after | 31.4 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 18 Oct after | 30.6 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 19 Oct after | 30.9 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 Oct after | 30.7 °C | 11 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 21 Oct after | 30.2 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 221Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Altar fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 October 2020 and 11 October 2020: 5 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 6,429 hectares (64.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, class Extreme.
- 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.
Report an error
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.