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San Dimas fire, March 2017 San Dimas

Out · last detection 3 Apr 2017, 20:34 UTC

The fire started on 27 March 2017 in San Dimas, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,050 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 155th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 234 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
2,050ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
27 Mar 2017 – 3 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 Mar
2017
Heat detections
66
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
591MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Mar3 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2728293031123

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

The weather it burned in

23°high
81km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 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. San Dimas where it started
    2,062 ha reached on 26 Mar
    0.4 %

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 22 March 2017 and burned 958 ha (the satellite measured 2,050 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)
26 Mar 21.0 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Mar 23.1 °C 13 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Mar 20.6 °C 12 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Mar 18.9 °C 15 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Mar 22.7 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Mar 19.5 °C 11 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Apr 17.7 °C 13 % 69 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Apr 16.8 °C 14 % 81 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Apr 21.0 °C 11 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Apr after 20.8 °C 13 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Apr after 23.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Apr after 24.1 °C 15 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Apr after 23.0 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Apr after 25.0 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Apr after 24.4 °C 16 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Apr after 26.1 °C 13 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Apr after 24.7 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Apr after 24.4 °C 13 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Apr after 23.9 °C 13 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Mar 2017
After · 10 Apr 2017

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 · 66Every 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 San Dimas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 March 2017 and 3 April 2017: 8 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 2,050 hectares (20.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Dimas (2,062 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.1 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 81 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
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.