Burned area
satellite only471ha
Perimeter published by MTBS (USGS/USFS).
- Source
- MTBS (USGS/USFS)
- Date
- 22 Jun 2023 – 22 Jun 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
US · United States ·
Goldwater Fire, June 2023 Maricopa
Out · last detection 22 Jun 2023, 09:39 UTC
The fire started on 22 June 2023 in Maricopa, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 471 hectares, spread across a single county.
It is the 357th largest in Arizona since 2016 (of 380 with a page). Number 273 in United States in 2023, of 305.
The power measured by the satellite is low (2.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Siphon · 2024Flying Bucket · 2024
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only1day
22 Jun 2023 to 22 Jun 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- MTBS (USGS/USFS) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 22 Jun 2023, 09:39 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only22 Jun 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- MTBS (USGS/USFS) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 22 Jun 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only6
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 2 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 22 Jun 2023 – 22 Jun 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only10MW
Total radiative power on 22 June 2023; hotspots that day: 6.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 22 Jun 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model55.9FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 33.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 22 Jun 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.9°C · 6% RH
High of 36.9 °C and minimum humidity of 6% on 22 June 2023; gusts of 39 km/h on 22 June 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 22 Jun 2023 – 22 Jun 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 471 ha
- Dates
- 22 Jun 2023 – 22 Jun 2023
- Name
- Goldwater
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/goldwater-fire-2023-06?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire goldwater-fire-2023-06.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-06-22 | 6 | 10 | 36.9 | 21.7 | 6 | 19.4 | 38.9 | 0 | 55.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-06-23 | 0 | 0 | 34.1 | 21.2 | 3 | 16.2 | 29.9 | 0 | 65.9 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-06-24 | 0 | 0 | 37.2 | 18.6 | 3 | 15.7 | 28.8 | 0 | 60 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-06-25 | 0 | 0 | 39.9 | 24.1 | 5 | 19 | 36 | 0 | 58.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-06-26 | 0 | 0 | 40.4 | 25.4 | 4 | 19.8 | 37.8 | 0 | 63 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-06-27 | 0 | 0 | 38.9 | 24.5 | 7 | 22.8 | 43.9 | 0 | 77.3 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2023-06-28 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 24.5 | 11 | 23.9 | 45 | 0 | 87.4 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2023-06-29 | 0 | 0 | 38.2 | 23.7 | 8 | 18.3 | 37.1 | 0 | 71.3 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2023-06-30 | 0 | 0 | 39.3 | 22 | 7 | 16 | 29.5 | 0 | 56.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-07-01 | 0 | 0 | 40.9 | 25.7 | 8 | 20.1 | 33.5 | 0 | 70.8 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2023-07-02 | 0 | 0 | 40.6 | 26.6 | 9 | 22.5 | 42.1 | 0 | 86.2 | muy_extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: MTBS (USGS/USFS), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 471ha
- official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
- Duration
- ≈ 1day
- 22 Jun 2023 – 22 Jun 2023
- Counties hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 22 Jun
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 6
- in a single hotspot: 2 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 10MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
22 Jun22 Jun
How it evolved, day by day
22 Jun 2023 · 10 MW · 6
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
37°high
39km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity
It had gone 33 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 county
-
Maricopa where it started473 ha reached on 22 Jun0.0 %
Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with Extreme FWI: 36 % of the area in United States Very dry air: 40 % of the area in United States
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jun | 36.9 °C | 6 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 23 Jun after | 34.1 °C | 3 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 24 Jun after | 37.2 °C | 3 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 25 Jun after | 39.9 °C | 5 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 26 Jun after | 40.4 °C | 4 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 27 Jun after | 38.9 °C | 7 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 28 Jun after | 38.0 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 87 |
| 29 Jun after | 38.2 °C | 8 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 30 Jun after | 39.3 °C | 7 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 1 Jul after | 40.9 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 2 Jul after | 40.6 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 86 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 55.9, a minimum humidity of 6% and 33 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.
FWI at the start
55.9
Minimum humidity
6 %
Days without rain
33
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Goldwater Fire, June 2023
471 ha
1 day
FWI 55.9
Min. humidity 6 %
Siphon Fire, September 2024
6,071 ha
4 days
FWI 56.8
Min. humidity 8 %
131 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 21 Sept.
Flying Bucket Fire, May 2024
1,068 ha
2 days
FWI 50.6
Min. humidity 8 %
36 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Presumido Peak Fire, March 2022
977 ha
3 days
FWI 58.5
Min. humidity 8 %
147 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.4 mm on 29 Mar.
Flying R Fire, June 2017
949 ha
2 days
FWI 52.5
Min. humidity 5 %
218 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 22 Jun.
Espinosa Fire, October 2020
717 ha
2 days
FWI 58.1
Min. humidity 8 %
153 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 3 days
- median duration
- 963 ha
- median area
- 46 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.1 mm
- rain at the end (median; 12 of 26 had it)
It stayed below its twins: 471 ha against a median of 963 ha. It lasted 1 day, against 3 days.
In 14 of 26, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.1 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
39km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 22 Jun, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 12 of 26, with a median of 2.1 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 15 Jun 2023
After · 29 Jun 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 23 June 2023 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak25 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1036 µg/m³
Optical depth0.24
WHO 15
20 Jun22 Jun24 Jun
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 6Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Goldwater Fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (22 June 2023). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 22 June 2023 (1 day from 22 June 2023), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
- How much area did it burn?
- The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 471 hectares (4.7 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
- Which counties burned?
- The fire only entered Maricopa (473 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the official burnt perimeter of United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC, public domain), NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United States. It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 26. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 963 ha; 46 % went past 1,000 ha. In 14 of 26, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.1 mm.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
- NIFC · National Interagency Fire Center ↗
- InciWeb · Incident Information System ↗
- MTBS · Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity ↗
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: MTBS (US Geological Survey and US Forest Service), official.
- The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 6 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
Where this data comes from
The perimeter is official and in the public domain. For past years it comes from MTBS (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), run by the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service, which map it on Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery. For the current and last year it comes from WFIGS at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): incident perimeters mapped by fire crews, aircraft and imagery. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. County boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per county is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.