Madera fire, June 2024 Madera
The fire started on 5 June 2024 in Madera, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,421 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 34th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 28 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.
- Burnt area
- 6,421ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 5 Jun 2024 – 17 Jun 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 5 Jun
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 425
- in a single hotspot: 196 MW
- Danger at start
- 51
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.0GW
- sum of detected power
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.3 mm on 21 Jun.
This area had burned before
63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,863 ha in 2017, 59 ha in 2018, 408 ha in 2019, 1,138 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,036 ha that had burned before.
- 3,863 ha Madera fire, June 2017 14,441 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,138 ha Temósachic fire, April 2022 12,366 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 408 ha Madera fire, June 2019 6,214 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 59 ha Madera fire, May 2018 36,227 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Madera where it started6,413 ha reached on 4 Jun0.7 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Jun | 33.2 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 5 Jun | 36.3 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 6 Jun | 37.0 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Jun | 35.4 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Jun | 34.8 °C | 12 % | 46 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 9 Jun | 33.2 °C | 19 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Jun | 35.5 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Jun | 38.5 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Jun | 39.2 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Jun | 37.6 °C | 17 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Jun | 37.7 °C | 19 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 15 Jun | 37.5 °C | 18 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Jun | 37.0 °C | 21 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Jun | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Jun after | 35.6 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Jun after | 38.1 °C | 19 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 20 Jun after | 38.3 °C | 16 % | 64 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 21 Jun after | 36.0 °C | 28 % | 60 km/h | 4.3 mm | High 23 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 3 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 425Every 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 Madera fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 June 2024 and 17 June 2024: 13 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 6,421 hectares (64.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Madera (6,413 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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
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.