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Fronteras fire, May 2019 Fronteras

Out · last detection 27 May 2019, 09:19 UTC

The fire started on 24 May 2019 in Fronteras, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,784 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 24 May 2019 and declared extinguished on 28 May 2019.

It is the 73th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 286 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,784ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
24 May 2019 – 26 May 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
24 May
2019
Heat detections
104
in a single hotspot: 30 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
898MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 May26 May

How it evolved, day by day

24252627

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
81km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 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. Fronteras where it started
    1,788 ha reached on 24 May
    0.7 %

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 24 May 2019 and burned 1,501 ha (the satellite measured 1,784 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)
24 May 28.0 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 May 29.2 °C 13 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 May 26.2 °C 13 % 81 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
27 May after 26.2 °C 13 % 72 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 May after 26.3 °C 10 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 May after 27.0 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 May after 28.3 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 May after 30.9 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Jun after 31.1 °C 20 % 59 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 55
2 Jun after 30.8 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jun after 31.3 °C 18 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Jun after 29.9 °C 16 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Jun after 31.4 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 May 2019
After · 2 Jun 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 · 104Every 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 Fronteras fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 May 2019 and 26 May 2019: 3 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 24 May 2019 and declared extinguished on 28 May 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,784 hectares (17.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Fronteras (1,788 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 81 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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
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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.