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Cumpas fire, June 2016 Arizpe, Cumpas

Out · last detection 22 Jun 2016, 21:22 UTC

The fire started on 12 June 2016 in Cumpas, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,507 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 11 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

Burnt area
7,507ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
12 Jun 2016 – 23 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Jun
2016
Heat detections
339
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jun 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jun23 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161719202122

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
49km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 26 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. Arizpe
    5,919 ha reached on 12 Jun
    1.9 %
  2. Cumpas where it started
    1,602 ha reached on 12 Jun
    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, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 3,062 ha (the satellite measured 7,507 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)
12 Jun 33.2 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Jun 32.4 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Jun 33.8 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Jun 34.1 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Jun 35.3 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Jun 37.8 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Jun 41.0 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Jun 41.8 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Jun 37.2 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Jun 38.2 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 51
22 Jun 36.4 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 49
23 Jun 34.3 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Jun after 33.9 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 45
25 Jun after 33.3 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jun after 35.1 °C 24 % 31 km/h 2.8 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jun 2016
After · 30 Jun 2016

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 · 339Every 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 Cumpas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 June 2016 and 23 June 2016: 12 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 7,507 hectares (75.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arizpe (5,919 ha, 1.9 %); Cumpas (1,602 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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
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.