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Moris fire, May 2024 Moris, Yécora

Out · last detection 11 Jun 2024, 19:58 UTC

The fire started on 31 May 2024 in Moris, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,402 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 35th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 30 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

Burnt area
6,402ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
31 May 2024 – 11 Jun 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
31 May
2024
Heat detections
479
in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jun 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 May11 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

4567891011

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
46km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 21 Jun.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,163 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Moris where it started
    5,830 ha reached on 29 May
    3.2 %
  2. Yécora
    598 ha reached on 29 May
    0.2 %

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, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 8,438 ha (the satellite measured 6,402 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
29 May 33.4 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 May 33.2 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 May 34.0 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Jun 33.6 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Jun 33.3 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jun 33.2 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Jun 32.6 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jun 35.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jun 36.3 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jun 34.0 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 45
8 Jun 33.7 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Jun 32.5 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Jun 34.7 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Jun 37.6 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Jun after 39.0 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Jun after 35.6 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 46
14 Jun after 36.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Jun after 36.1 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jun after 35.8 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Jun after 35.0 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Jun after 33.9 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Jun after 36.7 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Jun after 38.7 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Jun after 36.5 °C 24 % 44 km/h 1.6 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 May 2024
After · 18 Jun 2024

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 5 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak28 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1041 µg/m³
Optical depth0.45
2930311234567891011121314
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 · 479Every 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 Moris fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 May 2024 and 11 June 2024: 12 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 6,402 hectares (64.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Moris (5,830 ha, 3.2 %); Yécora (598 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.