Skip to content
worldfires
en
MX · Mexico · →

San Ignacio fire, 20 April 2019 San Ignacio, Mazatlán, San Dimas

Out · last detection 30 May 2019, 19:38 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2019 in San Ignacio, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 41 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,280 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Sinaloa since 2016 (of 82 with a page). Number 6 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Compare with…

Suggestions: San Ignacio · 2018San Ignacio · 2018San Ignacio · 2018San Ignacio · 2021

Burnt area
22,280ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
41days
20 Apr 2019 – 30 May 2019
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
20 Apr
2019
Heat detections
1,275
in a single hotspot: 73 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
161MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr30 May
30 May 2019

How it evolved, day by day

20 Apr 2019 · 21 MW · 3 21 Apr 2019 · 23 MW · 8 22 Apr 2019 · 7 MW · 8 24 Apr 2019 · 30 MW · 9 25 Apr 2019 · 3 MW · 4 26 Apr 2019 · 324 MW · 43 27 Apr 2019 · 187 MW · 21 28 Apr 2019 · 51 MW · 25 29 Apr 2019 · 49 MW · 14 30 Apr 2019 · 138 MW · 59 1 May 2019 · 104 MW · 55 2 May 2019 · 87 MW · 53 3 May 2019 · 173 MW · 28 4 May 2019 · 264 MW · 31 5 May 2019 · 168 MW · 44 6 May 2019 · 78 MW · 22 7 May 2019 · 186 MW · 42 8 May 2019 · 194 MW · 49 9 May 2019 · 390 MW · 69 10 May 2019 · 598 MW · 103 11 May 2019 · 282 MW · 72 12 May 2019 · 233 MW · 65 13 May 2019 · 141 MW · 29 14 May 2019 · 64 MW · 17 15 May 2019 · 103 MW · 21 16 May 2019 · 127 MW · 37 17 May 2019 · 142 MW · 34 18 May 2019 · 111 MW · 25 19 May 2019 · 87 MW · 20 20 May 2019 · 308 MW · 26 21 May 2019 · 292 MW · 70 22 May 2019 · 326 MW · 52 23 May 2019 · 528 MW · 50 24 May 2019 · 215 MW · 42 25 May 2019 · 68 MW · 21 26 May 2019 · 1 MW · 1 29 May 2019 · 3 MW · 1 30 May 2019 · 7 MW · 2
20 Apr 27 Apr 3 May 9 May 10 May 15 May 21 May 29 May

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
50km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 2 Jun.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,073 ha in 2016, 1,075 ha in 2018.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 14% of the area of London (223 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. San Ignacio where it started
    18,084 ha reached on 20 Apr
    3.6 %
  2. Mazatlán 501,441 inhabitants
    3,067 ha reached on 1 May
    1.2 %
  3. San Dimas
    1,238 ha reached on 14 May
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area0.47 ha
Residents≈ 60

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.47 hectares of built-up land and about 60 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
20 Apr 30.3 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Apr 30.1 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Apr 30.2 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Apr 28.6 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Apr 28.6 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Apr 29.8 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Apr 31.3 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Apr 31.0 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Apr 30.2 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Apr 31.0 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Apr 31.0 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 May 32.2 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 May 31.8 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 May 29.4 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 May 31.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 May 29.7 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 May 29.0 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 May 30.0 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 May 29.1 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 May 29.5 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 May 29.7 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 May 31.0 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 May 29.2 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 May 29.8 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 May 31.2 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 May 32.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 May 31.2 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 May 30.1 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 May 30.6 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 May 32.1 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 May 32.1 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 May 32.1 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 May 32.0 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 May 33.0 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 May 32.9 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 May 33.8 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 May 31.9 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 May 31.5 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 May 30.7 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
29 May 32.9 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 May 31.7 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 May after 30.4 °C 45 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Jun after 30.3 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Jun after 31.4 °C 47 % 39 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Apr 2019
After · 6 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 · 1,275Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 April 2019 to 30 May 2019 (41 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 April 2019 to 25 May 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 22,280 hectares (222.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: San Ignacio (18,084 ha, 3.6 %); Mazatlán (3,067 ha, 1.2 %); San Dimas (1,238 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 20 April 2019 to 25 May 2019. 1,275 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.