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Ensenada fire, 19 June 2017 Ensenada

Out · last detection 21 Jun 2017, 20:56 UTC

The fire started on 19 June 2017 in Ensenada, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,096 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 40th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 222 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
2,096ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
19 Jun 2017 – 21 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
19 Jun
2017
Heat detections
44
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
971MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jun21 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

192021

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
42km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Ensenada where it started
    2,140 ha reached on 19 Jun
    0.0 %

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 19 June 2017 and burned 1,500 ha (the satellite measured 2,096 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)
19 Jun 35.3 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Jun 37.5 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Jun 35.3 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Jun after 31.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Jun after 31.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm High 34
24 Jun after 33.7 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 40
25 Jun after 36.5 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Jun after 35.0 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Jun after 33.6 °C 11 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Jun after 30.8 °C 5 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Jun after 28.2 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Jun after 30.2 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Jul after 29.1 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jun 2017
After · 28 Jun 2017

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 · 44Every 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 Ensenada fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 June 2017 and 21 June 2017: 3 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 2,096 hectares (21.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ensenada (2,140 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.