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Imuris fire, June 2023 Imuris, Cucurpe, Magdalena

Out · last detection 22 Jun 2023, 09:39 UTC

The fire started on 10 June 2023 in Imuris, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,877 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 8 June 2023 and declared extinguished on 24 June 2023.

It is the 6th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 4 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.

Burnt area
14,877ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
10 Jun 2023 – 22 Jun 2023
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
10 Jun
2023
Heat detections
1,004
in a single hotspot: 95 MW
Danger at start
61
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
11.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jun 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jun22 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
64km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 445 ha in 2016, 993 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Imuris where it started
    10,472 ha reached on 10 Jun
    4.8 %
  2. Cucurpe
    2,553 ha reached on 14 Jun
    1.6 %
  3. Magdalena
    1,889 ha reached on 15 Jun
    1.5 %

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 8 June 2023 and burned 13,183 ha (the satellite measured 14,877 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)
10 Jun 29.4 °C 7 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Jun 27.7 °C 8 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 Jun 27.0 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Jun 28.6 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Jun 30.7 °C 8 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Jun 31.0 °C 7 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
16 Jun 31.6 °C 8 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
17 Jun 31.9 °C 9 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
18 Jun 31.9 °C 10 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Jun 31.8 °C 12 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Jun 32.7 °C 11 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Jun 32.5 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Jun 33.2 °C 9 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
23 Jun after 33.5 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
24 Jun after 34.4 °C 7 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Jun after 36.5 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Jun after 37.5 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
27 Jun after 34.6 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Jun after 34.0 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Jun after 33.8 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Jun after 33.6 °C 7 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Jul after 34.7 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Jul after 34.5 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jun 2023
After · 29 Jun 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 15 June 2023 the air beside the fire reached 162 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak162 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10231 µg/m³
Optical depth0.53
8910111213141516171819202122232425
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 · 1,004Every 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 Imuris fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 June 2023 and 22 June 2023: 13 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 8 June 2023 and declared extinguished on 24 June 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,877 hectares (148.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Imuris (10,472 ha, 4.8 %); Cucurpe (2,553 ha, 1.6 %); Magdalena (1,889 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.