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San Ignacio fire, 4 April 2018 San Dimas, San Ignacio

Out · last detection 6 May 2018, 19:32 UTC

The fire started on 4 April 2018 in San Ignacio, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,174 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Sinaloa since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 8 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
14,174ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
4 Apr 2018 – 5 May 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
4 Apr
2018
Heat detections
966
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Apr5 May

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930123456

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
56km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 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
    11,619 ha reached on 5 Apr
    2.1 %
  2. San Ignacio where it started
    2,609 ha reached on 4 Apr
    0.5 %

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 Apr 25.1 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Apr 25.6 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Apr 24.8 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Apr 24.7 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Apr 24.3 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Apr 24.0 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Apr 25.7 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.7 mm High 26
11 Apr 26.7 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
12 Apr 24.3 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Apr 23.1 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Apr 23.8 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Apr 26.3 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Apr 25.5 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Apr 26.1 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Apr 27.2 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Apr 27.5 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Apr 25.8 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Apr 25.6 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Apr 26.4 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Apr 25.7 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Apr 27.0 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Apr 27.7 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Apr 27.2 °C 25 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Apr 26.8 °C 28 % 51 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
28 Apr 24.8 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
29 Apr 25.0 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
30 Apr 25.6 °C 26 % 56 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
1 May 27.2 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 May 26.3 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 May 25.9 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 May 28.3 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 May 29.0 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
6 May after 27.6 °C 36 % 46 km/h 5.0 mm Low 6
7 May after 27.2 °C 33 % 36 km/h 1.9 mm Low 8
8 May after 26.6 °C 42 % 36 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 4
9 May after 25.3 °C 47 % 40 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 3
10 May after 26.1 °C 45 % 40 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 4
11 May after 25.5 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
12 May after 25.0 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
13 May after 26.1 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 May after 26.9 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 May after 28.2 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 May after 27.3 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 May after 27.6 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
18 May after 27.8 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 May after 27.0 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 May after 27.4 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 May after 26.9 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 May after 26.5 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Mar 2018
After · 12 May 2018

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 · 966Every 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 Ignacio fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 April 2018 and 5 May 2018: 32 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 14,174 hectares (141.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Dimas (11,619 ha, 2.1 %); San Ignacio (2,609 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.