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Apache Complex, February 2018 Pueblo, El Paso

Out · last measured on 24 Feb 2018

The fire started on 24 February 2018 in Pueblo, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 2,096 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 59th largest in Colorado since 2016 (of 167 with a page). Number 194 in United States in 2018, of 511.

Burnt area
2,096ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
24 Feb 2018 – 24 Feb 2018
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
24 Feb
2018
Heat detections
46
in a single hotspot: 64 MW
Danger at start
5
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Feb24 Feb

The weather it burned in

19°high
58km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 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. Pueblo where it started
    1,933 ha reached on 23 Feb
    0.3 %
  2. El Paso
    166 ha reached on 23 Feb
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official 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.

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)
23 Feb 2.4 °C 50 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
24 Feb 4.5 °C 19 % 50 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 1
25 Feb after 5.6 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
26 Feb after 13.3 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
27 Feb after 14.4 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
28 Feb after 10.1 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Low 11
1 Mar after 12.0 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
2 Mar after 17.7 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
3 Mar after 19.2 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
4 Mar after 17.4 °C 10 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Mar after 6.9 °C 12 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
6 Mar after 8.9 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
7 Mar after 10.3 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
8 Mar after 17.5 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
9 Mar after 18.5 °C 6 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Mar after 16.1 °C 11 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Mar after 8.9 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Mar after 13.6 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Mar after 10.9 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Mar after 19.3 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
15 Mar after 18.7 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
16 Mar after 14.4 °C 11 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Mar after 16.5 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Mar after 13.9 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 Mar after 7.8 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
20 Mar after 14.0 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Feb 2018
After · 3 Mar 2018

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 · 46Every 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 United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Apache Complex fire last?
It burned between 24 February 2018 and 24 February 2018: 1 day, according to the start date recorded by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) and the heat detections seen by satellite.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 2,096 hectares (21.0 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Pueblo (1,933 ha, 0.3 %); El Paso (166 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 19.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the official burnt perimeter of United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC, public domain), NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United States. 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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Where this data comes from

The perimeter is official and in the public domain. For past years it comes from MTBS (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), run by the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service, which map it on Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery. For the current and last year it comes from WFIGS at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): incident perimeters mapped by fire crews, aircraft and imagery. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. County boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per county is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.