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Choix fire, May 2018 Sinaloa, Choix

Out · last detection 28 May 2018, 19:20 UTC

The fire started on 15 May 2018 in Choix, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,180 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Sinaloa since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 15 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
11,180ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
15 May 2018 – 28 May 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 May
2018
Heat detections
608
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 May28 May

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
47km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 6 Jun.

This area had burned before

20% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,200 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Sinaloa 78,670 inhabitants
    8,629 ha reached on 17 May
    1.4 %
  2. Choix where it started
    2,609 ha reached on 15 May
    0.8 %

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 18 May 2018 and burned 6,364 ha (the satellite measured 11,180 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)
15 May 31.9 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 May 32.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 May 32.1 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 May 29.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 May 29.7 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 May 30.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 May 28.7 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 May 28.5 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 May 30.0 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 May 32.7 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 May 33.5 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 May 34.7 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 May 33.1 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 May 32.3 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 May after 30.9 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 May after 32.5 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 May after 34.2 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Jun after 35.4 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Jun after 35.1 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Jun after 32.4 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Jun after 30.0 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
5 Jun after 31.6 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
6 Jun after 30.3 °C 48 % 39 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 May 2018
After · 4 Jun 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 · 608Every 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 Choix fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 May 2018 and 28 May 2018: 14 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 11,180 hectares (111.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sinaloa (8,629 ha, 1.4 %); Choix (2,609 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very 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.

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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.