How long did the Cueva fire last?

It burned between 6 August 2019 and 6 August 2019: 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 489 hectares (4.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire only entered Rio Arriba (486 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.

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.

US · United States · 2019-08-06 → 2019-08-06

Cueva Fire, August 2019 Rio Arriba

Out · last measured on 6 Aug 2019

The fire started on 6 August 2019 in Rio Arriba, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 489 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 188th largest in New Mexico since 2016 (of 204 with a page). Number 330 in United States in 2019, of 367.

Burnt area: 489ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 6 Aug 2019 – 6 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 6 Aug; 2019
Heat detections: 35; in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start: 3; Very low · FWI index

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Aug6 Aug

The weather it burned in

30°high

51km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 7 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Rio Arriba where it started

486 ha reached on 11 Aug

0.0 %

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)
6 Aug	25.8 °C	33 %	35 km/h	6.2 mm	Very low 3
7 Aug after	26.1 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
8 Aug after	26.4 °C	32 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 18
9 Aug after	24.2 °C	35 %	28 km/h	9.7 mm	Very low 1
10 Aug after	23.7 °C	40 %	22 km/h	9.6 mm	Very low 0
11 Aug after	21.0 °C	58 %	36 km/h	20.0 mm	Very low 0
12 Aug after	24.2 °C	33 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
13 Aug after	26.7 °C	20 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
14 Aug after	25.4 °C	19 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
15 Aug after	26.6 °C	17 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
16 Aug after	26.4 °C	17 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
17 Aug after	26.3 °C	17 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
18 Aug after	27.1 °C	15 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
19 Aug after	28.0 °C	16 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
20 Aug after	29.0 °C	19 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
21 Aug after	27.3 °C	22 %	35 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 21
22 Aug after	26.5 °C	14 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
23 Aug after	25.4 °C	19 %	42 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
24 Aug after	26.6 °C	17 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
25 Aug after	28.9 °C	16 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
26 Aug after	29.5 °C	15 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
27 Aug after	28.1 °C	15 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
28 Aug after	27.7 °C	15 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
29 Aug after	27.5 °C	14 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
30 Aug after	28.2 °C	17 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Aug after	28.1 °C	15 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
1 Sept after	28.8 °C	18 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
2 Sept after	28.1 °C	20 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
3 Sept after	29.0 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
4 Sept after	26.4 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
5 Sept after	28.7 °C	19 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
6 Sept after	27.4 °C	24 %	24 km/h	0.7 mm	High 26
7 Sept after	26.5 °C	20 %	42 km/h	2.9 mm	Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 30 Jul 2019

After · 13 Aug 2019

Before After

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 · 35Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cueva fire last?: It burned between 6 August 2019 and 6 August 2019: 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 489 hectares (4.9 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire only entered Rio Arriba (486 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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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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.

Where it burned