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Black Fire, July 2024 Maricopa, Gila

Out · last measured on 12 Jul 2024

The fire started on 12 July 2024 in Maricopa, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 3,615 hectares, spread across 2 counties.

It is the 91th largest in Arizona since 2016 (of 380 with a page). Number 97 in United States in 2024, of 371.

Burnt area
3,615ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
12 Jul 2024 – 12 Jul 2024
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
12 Jul
2024
Heat detections
7
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jul12 Jul

The weather it burned in

39°high
44km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 20 Jul.

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,020 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Maricopa where it started
    2,237 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.1 %
  2. Gila
    1,386 ha reached on 16 Jul
    0.1 %

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)
12 Jul 38.4 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Jul after 38.6 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Jul after 34.9 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 49
15 Jul after 35.8 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 49
16 Jul after 36.2 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 47
17 Jul after 36.4 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 49
18 Jul after 37.4 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 48
19 Jul after 37.4 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 43
20 Jul after 36.4 °C 25 % 45 km/h 2.3 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jul 2024
After · 19 Jul 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 15 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak28 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1066 µg/m³
Optical depth0.37
101112131415
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 7Every 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 Black fire last?
It burned between 12 July 2024 and 12 July 2024: 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 3,615 hectares (36.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: Maricopa (2,237 ha, 0.1 %); Gila (1,386 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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.

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 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.