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Ensenada fire, 16 June 2018 Ensenada

Out · last detection 28 Jun 2018, 21:21 UTC

The fire started on 16 June 2018 in Ensenada, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,964 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 20th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 48 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
3,964ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
16 Jun 2018 – 28 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
16 Jun
2018
Heat detections
278
in a single hotspot: 390 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
14.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jun 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jun28 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

16171819202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
33km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 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
    3,995 ha reached on 16 Jun
    0.1 %

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 2,512 ha (the satellite measured 3,964 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)
16 Jun 23.6 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Jun 24.1 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jun 25.5 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Jun 27.3 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jun 29.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Jun 30.7 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jun 32.6 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jun 30.2 °C 4 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Jun 29.2 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jun 30.0 °C 4 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Jun 31.3 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Jun 31.8 °C 7 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Jun 31.7 °C 4 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Jun after 28.7 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Jun after 26.7 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Jul after 29.8 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Jul after 30.2 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jul after 29.8 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Jul after 28.7 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Jul after 32.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Jul after 33.1 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Jul after 32.6 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 50
8 Jul after 31.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jun 2018
After · 5 Jul 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 · 278Every 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 16 June 2018 and 28 June 2018: 13 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 3,964 hectares (39.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ensenada (3,995 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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
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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.