Ensenada fire, 6 June 2021 Ensenada, Mexicali
The fire started on 6 June 2021 in Ensenada, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,556 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 11th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 38 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.
- Burnt area
- 5,556ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 6 Jun 2021 – 21 Jun 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 6 Jun
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 315
- in a single hotspot: 340 MW
- Danger at start
- 51
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.8GW
- 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 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 29 Jun.
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 started5,105 ha reached on 6 Jun0.1 %
-
Mexicali 1,049,792 inhabitants556 ha reached on 10 Jun0.0 %
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 3,292 ha (the satellite measured 5,556 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Ensenada Misión de Santa Catarina/ Santa Catarina 16 June 2021 1,931 ha · extinguished on 22 June 2021 · cause: unknown
- Ensenada Santa Catarina/Valle Seco 6 June 2021 1,362 ha · extinguished on 12 June 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Jun | 29.5 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Jun | 25.1 °C | 22 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 8 Jun | 28.0 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Jun | 28.4 °C | 14 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Jun | 29.1 °C | 4 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Jun | 31.7 °C | 4 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 12 Jun | 32.9 °C | 5 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 13 Jun | 36.2 °C | 3 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Jun | 34.6 °C | 5 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 15 Jun | 37.4 °C | 6 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Jun | 36.7 °C | 11 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 17 Jun | 36.2 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 18 Jun | 36.1 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 19 Jun | 36.0 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 20 Jun | 35.5 °C | 10 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 21 Jun | 34.6 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 22 Jun after | 30.8 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Jun after | 28.7 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Jun after | 31.0 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Jun after | 33.3 °C | 3 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 26 Jun after | 33.3 °C | 6 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 27 Jun after | 36.1 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 28 Jun after | 34.7 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 2.3 mm | High 26 |
| 29 Jun after | 32.8 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 1.5 mm | High 24 |
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 · 315Every 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 6 June 2021 and 21 June 2021: 16 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 5,556 hectares (55.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ensenada (5,105 ha, 0.1 %); Mexicali (556 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.