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Opodepe fire, June 2019 Banámichi, Opodepe

Out · last detection 23 Jun 2019, 20:30 UTC

The fire started on 11 June 2019 in Opodepe, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,561 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 11 June 2019 and declared extinguished on 25 June 2019.

It is the 8th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 16 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
13,561ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
11 Jun 2019 – 23 Jun 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
11 Jun
2019
Heat detections
893
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jun 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jun23 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

11121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
57km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 1 Jul.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 159 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Banámichi
    6,959 ha reached on 12 Jun
    8.6 %
  2. Opodepe where it started
    6,654 ha reached on 11 Jun
    3.0 %

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 11 June 2019 and burned 11,272 ha (the satellite measured 13,561 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)
11 Jun 36.0 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jun 37.2 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Jun 34.5 °C 15 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Jun 31.8 °C 18 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Jun 30.5 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Jun 30.8 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jun 31.1 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jun 30.5 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Jun 31.5 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jun 32.4 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jun 31.2 °C 9 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Jun 29.5 °C 16 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Jun 29.8 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jun after 31.7 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Jun after 31.1 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Jun after 31.2 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jun after 33.8 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Jun after 35.8 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Jun after 37.0 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Jun after 33.9 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Jul after 32.7 °C 23 % 37 km/h 1.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jun 2019
After · 30 Jun 2019

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 · 893Every 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 Opodepe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 June 2019 and 23 June 2019: 13 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 11 June 2019 and declared extinguished on 25 June 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,561 hectares (135.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Banámichi (6,959 ha, 8.6 %); Opodepe (6,654 ha, 3.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.

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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.