Bacoachi fire, 20 June 2023 Nacozari de García, Bacoachi, Arizpe
The fire started on 20 June 2023 in Bacoachi, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,439 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 61th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 139 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.
- Burnt area
- 2,439ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 20 Jun 2023 – 23 Jun 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Jun
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 134
- in a single hotspot: 40 MW
- Danger at start
- 62
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 523MW
- 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
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
1,179 ha reached on 19 Jun0.7 %
-
Bacoachi where it started705 ha reached on 17 Jun0.6 %
-
561 ha reached on 21 Jun0.2 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jun | 33.2 °C | 10 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 18 Jun | 34.1 °C | 9 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Jun | 33.8 °C | 11 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 20 Jun | 34.8 °C | 12 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 21 Jun | 35.2 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 22 Jun | 35.7 °C | 10 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 23 Jun | 36.2 °C | 9 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 24 Jun after | 36.6 °C | 10 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 25 Jun after | 37.2 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Jun after | 38.8 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 27 Jun after | 35.8 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 28 Jun after | 34.9 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 29 Jun after | 34.1 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 30 Jun after | 34.7 °C | 8 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 1 Jul after | 35.8 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 2 Jul after | 35.2 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 3 Jul after | 36.0 °C | 11 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 4 Jul after | 36.4 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 5 Jul after | 36.4 °C | 13 % | 35 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 19 June 2023 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 134Every 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 Bacoachi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 June 2023 and 23 June 2023: 4 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 2,439 hectares (24.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nacozari de García (1,179 ha, 0.7 %); Bacoachi (705 ha, 0.6 %); Arizpe (561 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.