Ensenada fire, August 2017 Ensenada
The fire started on 31 August 2017 in Ensenada, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,233 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 30 August 2017 and declared extinguished on 4 September 2017.
It is the 5th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 32 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.
- Burnt area
- 8,233ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 31 Aug 2017 – 2 Sept 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 31 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 398
- in a single hotspot: 281 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 12.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.6 mm on 3 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Ensenada where it started8,411 ha reached on 1 Sept0.2 %
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 30 August 2017 and burned 7,213 ha (the satellite measured 8,233 ha).
- Ensenada Las Codornices 30 August 2017 7,213 ha · extinguished on 4 September 2017 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Aug | 34.2 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Sept | 34.4 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Sept | 36.1 °C | 26 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Sept after | 27.5 °C | 55 % | 50 km/h | 8.6 mm | Low 6 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 398Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,352 haEnsenada2 October 2021 · 3 days · 15 km away
- 2,988 haEnsenadaOctober 2023 · 3 days · 21 km away
- 16,948 haEnsenada26 June 2017 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 7,386 haEnsenada24 January 2025 · 2 days · 24 km away
- 4,058 haEnsenada11 August 2020 · 4 days · 28 km away
- 3,487 haEnsenadaAugust 2018 · 5 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ensenada fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2017 and 2 September 2017: 3 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 30 August 2017 and declared extinguished on 4 September 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,233 hectares (82.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ensenada (8,411 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.
Report an error
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.