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Cabo Corrientes fire, June 2023 Cabo Corrientes

Out · last detection 26 Jun 2023, 08:27 UTC

The fire started on 12 June 2023 in Cabo Corrientes, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,445 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 132th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 136 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,445ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
12 Jun 2023 – 26 Jun 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Jun
2023
Heat detections
172
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
549MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jun 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jun26 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122232526

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
43km/h · peak gust
48%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.9 mm on 27 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Cabo Corrientes where it started
    2,458 ha reached on 12 Jun
    1.6 %

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 14 June 2023 and burned 1,442 ha (the satellite measured 2,445 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)
9 Jun 25.2 °C 66 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
10 Jun 26.3 °C 67 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 Jun 26.4 °C 64 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
12 Jun 26.4 °C 64 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 Jun 27.0 °C 66 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Jun 26.7 °C 63 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Jun 26.9 °C 55 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Jun 27.4 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 Jun 27.9 °C 58 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Jun 27.8 °C 59 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
19 Jun 28.0 °C 63 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Jun 28.5 °C 54 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
21 Jun 27.6 °C 49 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
22 Jun 27.3 °C 56 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
23 Jun 26.9 °C 62 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Jun 27.4 °C 60 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Jun 27.0 °C 65 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Jun 27.5 °C 67 % 38 km/h 1.6 mm Low 8
27 Jun after 28.8 °C 58 % 25 km/h 4.9 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jun 2023
After · 3 Jul 2023

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 11 June 2023 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1050 µg/m³
Optical depth0.83
1011121314151617181920212223242526272829
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 · 172Every 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 Cabo Corrientes fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 June 2023 and 26 June 2023: 15 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 2,445 hectares (24.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cabo Corrientes (2,458 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 48 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.
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.