Imuris fire, October 2020 Cananea, Imuris
The fire started on 7 October 2020 in Imuris, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,872 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 46th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 83 with a page). Number 81 in Mexico in 2020, of 242.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 2,872ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 7 Oct 2020 – 10 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 7 Oct
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 106
- in a single hotspot: 161 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 258MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 27 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
1,562 ha reached on 7 Oct0.7 %
-
Imuris where it started1,320 ha reached on 7 Oct0.6 %
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 6 October 2020 and burned 1,693 ha (the satellite measured 2,872 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Imuris El AMOLE/RANCHO LA CABAÑA 6 October 2020 1,693 ha · extinguished on 10 October 2020 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct | 34.0 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Oct | 32.5 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 9 Oct | 30.7 °C | 14 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Oct | 29.2 °C | 16 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Oct after | 28.4 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Oct after | 31.8 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Oct after | 33.8 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Oct after | 32.3 °C | 17 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Oct after | 32.5 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Oct after | 33.6 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Oct after | 31.6 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 18 Oct after | 31.8 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Oct after | 31.2 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 20 Oct after | 31.5 °C | 12 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 · 106Every 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 Imuris fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 October 2020 and 10 October 2020: 4 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 2,872 hectares (28.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cananea (1,562 ha, 0.7 %); Imuris (1,320 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 106 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with CONAFOR: 1,693 official ha against 2,872 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.