Skip to content
worldfires
MX · Mexico · →

Arizpe fire, June 2017 Arizpe, Cucurpe

Out · last detection 25 Jun 2017, 21:20 UTC

The fire started on 9 June 2017 in Arizpe, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,269 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 16 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
12,269ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
9 Jun 2017 – 25 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Jun
2017
Heat detections
798
in a single hotspot: 158 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
9.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Jun25 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

910111213141516171819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
55km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 2 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Arizpe where it started
    10,828 ha reached on 8 Jun
    3.5 %
  2. Cucurpe
    1,466 ha reached on 16 Jun
    0.9 %

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 9 June 2017 and burned 8,234 ha (the satellite measured 12,269 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)
8 Jun 32.3 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Jun 32.5 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jun 31.8 °C 10 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Jun 29.4 °C 19 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Jun 30.2 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Jun 33.2 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Jun 36.0 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Jun 36.5 °C 7 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Jun 35.0 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Jun 35.0 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jun 37.6 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Jun 39.7 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Jun 38.2 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Jun 37.7 °C 16 % 45 km/h 1.0 mm Very high 47
22 Jun 33.5 °C 26 % 42 km/h 1.1 mm High 34
23 Jun 35.3 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
24 Jun 38.2 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Jun 34.9 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.8 mm Very high 42
26 Jun after 34.8 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
27 Jun after 33.7 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 44
28 Jun after 32.5 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Jun after 32.8 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Jun after 35.0 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Jul after 35.0 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Jul after 31.7 °C 36 % 36 km/h 3.5 mm Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Jun 2017
After · 2 Jul 2017

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 · 798Every 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 Arizpe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 June 2017 and 25 June 2017: 17 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 12,269 hectares (122.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arizpe (10,828 ha, 3.5 %); Cucurpe (1,466 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.