Ensenada fire, January 2021 Ensenada
The fire started on 13 January 2021 in Ensenada, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,096 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 15 January 2021 and declared extinguished on 17 January 2021.
It is the 18th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 74 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.
- Burnt area
- 4,096ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 13 Jan 2021 – 15 Jan 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 124
- in a single hotspot: 171 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.0 mm on 19 Jan.
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 started4,152 ha reached on 13 Jan0.1 %
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 15 January 2021 and burned 3,715 ha (the satellite measured 4,096 ha).
- Ensenada Ejido San Isidoro / Picacho - Cañada Honda 15 January 2021 3,715 ha · extinguished on 17 January 2021 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jan | 22.0 °C | 7 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Jan | 25.8 °C | 6 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Jan | 26.5 °C | 3 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Jan after | 26.1 °C | 4 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Jan after | 25.4 °C | 9 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Jan after | 19.4 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Jan after | 17.0 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 10.0 mm | Very low 3 |
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 · 124Every 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 13 January 2021 and 15 January 2021: 3 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 15 January 2021 and declared extinguished on 17 January 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,096 hectares (41.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ensenada (4,152 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.5 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class 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.
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.