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San Ignacio fire, 9 May 2018 San Ignacio, San Dimas

Out · last detection 22 May 2018, 19:32 UTC

The fire started on 9 May 2018 in San Ignacio, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,786 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Sinaloa since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 54 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,786ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
9 May 2018 – 22 May 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 May
2018
Heat detections
199
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
964MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 May22 May

How it evolved, day by day

910111213141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
49km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 5 Jun.

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 Ignacio where it started
    1,932 ha reached on 9 May
    0.4 %
  2. San Dimas
    1,868 ha reached on 15 May
    0.3 %

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)
9 May 28.9 °C 48 % 40 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 3
10 May 29.7 °C 46 % 40 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 4
11 May 29.1 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
12 May 28.6 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 May 29.7 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
14 May 30.5 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 May 31.8 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 May 30.9 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
17 May 31.2 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
18 May 31.4 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 May 30.6 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 May 31.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 May 30.5 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 May 30.1 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 May after 30.6 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 May after 32.2 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 May after 32.0 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 May after 31.9 °C 43 % 41 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 21
27 May after 31.9 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 May after 31.3 °C 48 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 May after 32.6 °C 43 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
30 May after 33.6 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
31 May after 33.0 °C 45 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
1 Jun after 33.3 °C 45 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Jun after 32.7 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 18
3 Jun after 31.2 °C 48 % 49 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 20
4 Jun after 29.6 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
5 Jun after 29.5 °C 55 % 44 km/h 2.8 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 May 2018
After · 29 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 · 199Every 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 9 May 2018 and 22 May 2018: 14 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 3,786 hectares (37.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Ignacio (1,932 ha, 0.4 %); San Dimas (1,868 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.

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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.