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Ensenada fire, 29 September 2020 Ensenada

Out · last detection 2 Oct 2020, 21:15 UTC

The fire started on 29 September 2020 in Ensenada, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,218 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 4th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 6 in Mexico in 2020, of 243.

Burnt area
9,218ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
29 Sept 2020 – 3 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Sept
2020
Heat detections
358
in a single hotspot: 302 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
10.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Sept3 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

293012

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
36km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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
    9,376 ha reached on 29 Sept
    0.2 %

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 29 September 2020 and burned 6,749 ha (the satellite measured 9,218 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)
29 Sept 28.5 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Sept 28.5 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Oct 29.6 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Oct 27.3 °C 16 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Oct 25.1 °C 19 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Oct after 27.1 °C 13 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Oct after 26.8 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Oct after 25.2 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Oct after 22.1 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Oct after 19.9 °C 68 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
9 Oct after 20.6 °C 59 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Oct after 20.3 °C 61 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Oct after 20.9 °C 57 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Oct after 24.3 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Oct after 28.3 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Sept 2020
After · 10 Oct 2020

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 · 358Every 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 29 September 2020 and 3 October 2020: 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 9,218 hectares (92.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ensenada (9,376 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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
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.