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Madera fire, May 2023 Casas Grandes, Madera

Out · last detection 4 Jun 2023, 08:37 UTC

The fire started on 22 May 2023 in Madera, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,517 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 21 May 2023 and declared extinguished on 12 June 2023.

It is the 77th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 78 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,517ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
22 May 2023 – 4 Jun 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 May
2023
Heat detections
230
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Jun 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 May4 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627282930311234

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
71km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 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 town

  1. Casas Grandes
    2,846 ha reached on 23 May
    0.8 %
  2. Madera where it started
    679 ha reached on 22 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 21 May 2023 and burned 3,075 ha (the satellite measured 3,517 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)
22 May 27.5 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 May 26.7 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 May 27.1 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 May 27.8 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 May 29.4 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
27 May 24.9 °C 23 % 55 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
28 May 24.8 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 May 26.5 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 May 27.0 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
31 May 27.4 °C 21 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Jun 25.4 °C 19 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Jun 25.9 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Jun 27.9 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Jun 30.4 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Jun after 30.7 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Jun after 27.4 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Jun after 27.6 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Jun after 28.4 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Jun after 27.1 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Jun after 29.3 °C 16 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Jun after 29.4 °C 20 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Jun after 29.1 °C 14 % 69 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Jun after 30.9 °C 11 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jun after 30.8 °C 12 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jun after 32.0 °C 14 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Jun after 32.5 °C 17 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Jun after 32.2 °C 14 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jun after 33.4 °C 17 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jun after 33.2 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Jun after 33.9 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Jun after 34.5 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 May 2023
After · 11 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 28 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1027 µg/m³
Optical depth0.29
2021222324252627282930311234567
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 · 230Every 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 Madera fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 May 2023 and 4 June 2023: 14 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 21 May 2023 and declared extinguished on 12 June 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,517 hectares (35.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Casas Grandes (2,846 ha, 0.8 %); Madera (679 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
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
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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.