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Ensenada fire, 22 October 2019 Ensenada, Playas de Rosarito

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2019, 09:51 UTC

The fire started on 22 October 2019 in Ensenada, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,713 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 24 October 2019 and declared extinguished on 31 October 2019.

It is the largest fire in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 5 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
25,713ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
22 Oct 2019 – 27 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 Oct
2019
Heat detections
1,127
in a single hotspot: 297 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
31.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Oct27 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2224252627

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
85km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 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
    20,788 ha reached on 22 Oct
    0.4 %
  2. Playas de Rosarito 126,890 inhabitants
    5,394 ha reached on 25 Oct
    11 %

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, 4 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 22,567 ha (the satellite measured 25,713 ha).

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)
21 Oct 31.5 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Oct 33.3 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Oct 29.3 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Oct 34.3 °C 3 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
25 Oct 30.6 °C 6 % 82 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 97
26 Oct 28.2 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Oct 19.3 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Oct after 20.7 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
29 Oct after 19.0 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 Oct after 24.6 °C 3 % 85 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86
31 Oct after 23.7 °C 3 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 Nov after 24.1 °C 5 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Nov after 25.9 °C 6 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Nov after 25.8 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Nov after 23.2 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Nov after 23.6 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Nov after 20.1 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Nov after 21.6 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Nov after 26.8 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Nov after 28.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Nov after 21.8 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Nov after 19.0 °C 67 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Oct 2019
After · 3 Nov 2019

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 · 1,127Every 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 22 October 2019 and 27 October 2019: 6 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 24 October 2019 and declared extinguished on 31 October 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 25,713 hectares (257.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ensenada (20,788 ha, 0.4 %); Playas de Rosarito (5,394 ha, 11 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 85 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 97, class Very 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.

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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.