Ensenada fire, August 2018 Ensenada
The fire started on 29 August 2018 in Ensenada, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,487 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 61 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.
- Burnt area
- 3,487ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 29 Aug 2018 – 2 Sept 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Aug
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 195
- in a single hotspot: 304 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 12.0GW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 612 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Ensenada where it started3,572 ha reached on 30 Aug0.1 %
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, this fire started on 29 August 2018 and burned 1,996 ha (the satellite measured 3,487 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Ensenada Sierra de Juárez (El Pinal) 29 August 2018 1,996 ha · extinguished on 3 September 2018 · cause: unknown
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug | 29.7 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Aug | 29.9 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Aug | 29.1 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Sept | 26.9 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Sept | 27.0 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Sept after | 26.8 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Sept after | 25.6 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 5 Sept after | 27.5 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Sept after | 28.4 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Sept after | 32.2 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 11 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Sept after | 28.4 °C | 8 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 · 195Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ensenada fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 August 2018 and 2 September 2018: 5 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 3,487 hectares (34.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ensenada (3,572 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class 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.