How long did the Madera fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 May 2018 and 7 June 2018: 22 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 29,734 hectares (297.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Madera (23,305 ha, 2.7 %); Ignacio Zaragoza (6,075 ha, 2.1 %); Casas Grandes (528 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 28.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.

MX · Mexico · 2018-05-17 → 2018-06-07

Madera fire, 17 May 2018 Madera, Ignacio Zaragoza, Casas Grandes

Out · last detection 8 Jun 2018, 20:55 UTC

The fire started on 17 May 2018 in Madera, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,734 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 2 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area: 29,734ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 22days; 17 May 2018 – 7 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 17 May; 2018
Heat detections: 2,589; in a single hotspot: 308 MW
Danger at start: 48; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 27.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 8 Jun 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 May7 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

17181920212223242526272829303112345678

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

61km/h · peak gust

6%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.2 mm on 15 Jun.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Madera where it started

23,305 ha reached on 17 May

2.7 %
Ignacio Zaragoza

6,075 ha reached on 17 May

2.1 %
Casas Grandes

528 ha reached on 28 May

0.1 %

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 17 May 2018 and burned 19,213 ha (the satellite measured 29,734 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

Madera Ej. San Jose de Babibicora 17 May 2018 19,213 ha · extinguished on 9 June 2018 · cause: unknown

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)
17 May	23.7 °C	9 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
18 May	21.2 °C	8 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
19 May	21.4 °C	8 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
20 May	24.3 °C	7 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
21 May	23.7 °C	9 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
22 May	22.4 °C	7 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
23 May	23.4 °C	9 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
24 May	25.1 °C	6 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
25 May	27.7 °C	6 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
26 May	26.6 °C	9 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
27 May	24.8 °C	6 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
28 May	25.6 °C	6 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
29 May	26.4 °C	11 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
30 May	25.3 °C	11 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
31 May	26.9 °C	12 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
1 Jun	28.3 °C	10 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
2 Jun	27.9 °C	13 %	28 km/h	0.6 mm	Very high 42
3 Jun	27.6 °C	14 %	58 km/h	0.3 mm	Extreme 51
4 Jun	26.6 °C	18 %	61 km/h	0.6 mm	Very high 48
5 Jun	28.7 °C	16 %	42 km/h	2.0 mm	High 26
6 Jun	27.5 °C	17 %	50 km/h	2.0 mm	High 24
7 Jun	27.1 °C	17 %	38 km/h	0.9 mm	High 28
8 Jun after	23.7 °C	28 %	41 km/h	7.1 mm	Low 6
9 Jun after	20.7 °C	46 %	40 km/h	11.0 mm	Very low 1
10 Jun after	23.6 °C	29 %	34 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 7
11 Jun after	26.0 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 18
12 Jun after	27.4 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 Jun after	26.4 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
14 Jun after	25.3 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
15 Jun after	19.4 °C	48 %	29 km/h	14.2 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 10 May 2018

After · 14 Jun 2018

Before After

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 · 2,589Every 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

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Madera fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 May 2018 and 7 June 2018: 22 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 29,734 hectares (297.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Madera (23,305 ha, 2.7 %); Ignacio Zaragoza (6,075 ha, 2.1 %); Casas Grandes (528 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 28.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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

CONAFOR · Comisión Nacional Forestal ↗
CENAPRED ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

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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.

Where it burned