Skip to content
worldfires
US · United States · →

Juniper Fire, May 2016 Gila

Out · last measured on 20 May 2016

The fire started on 20 May 2016 in Gila, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 13,061 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 21th largest in Arizona since 2016 (of 380 with a page). Number 32 in United States in 2016, of 475.

Burnt area
13,061ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
20 May 2016 – 20 May 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
20 May
2016
Heat detections
2,245
in a single hotspot: 353 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 May20 May

The weather it burned in

34°high
60km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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. Gila where it started
    13,110 ha reached on 23 May
    1.0 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official 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.

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)
20 May 22.9 °C 9 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 May after 20.5 °C 10 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 May after 18.9 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 May after 20.3 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 May after 19.3 °C 11 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 May after 19.9 °C 10 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 May after 16.9 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 May after 20.8 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 May after 24.5 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 May after 24.8 °C 6 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 May after 23.0 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 May after 25.7 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Jun after 26.0 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Jun after 29.4 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Jun after 32.6 °C 5 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Jun after 33.7 °C 6 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Jun after 32.8 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Jun after 31.7 °C 6 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Jun after 29.0 °C 6 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Jun after 29.1 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Jun after 27.9 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Jun after 28.4 °C 15 % 55 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 46
11 Jun after 26.3 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 41
12 Jun after 26.6 °C 13 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Jun after 24.8 °C 10 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jun after 26.3 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Jun after 25.8 °C 6 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Jun after 27.0 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Jun after 29.1 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Jun after 33.0 °C 4 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Jun after 36.8 °C 4 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Jun after 34.9 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 May 2016
After · 27 May 2016

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 · 2,245Every 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 United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Juniper fire last?
It burned between 20 May 2016 and 20 May 2016: 1 day, according to the start date recorded by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) and the heat detections seen by satellite.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 13,061 hectares (130.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Gila (13,110 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

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 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.