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Soyopa fire, May 2018 Soyopa, San Pedro de la Cueva

Out · last detection 9 Jun 2018, 20:36 UTC

The fire started on 30 May 2018 in Soyopa, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,946 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 21th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 24 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
6,946ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
30 May 2018 – 8 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
30 May
2018
Heat detections
594
in a single hotspot: 94 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
7.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jun 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 May8 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

303112345789

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
44km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 13 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. Soyopa where it started
    4,926 ha reached on 30 May
    2.9 %
  2. San Pedro de la Cueva
    2,051 ha reached on 30 May
    0.9 %

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 30 May 2018 and burned 5,331 ha (the satellite measured 6,946 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)
30 May 35.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 May 37.0 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Jun 38.1 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Jun 38.8 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Jun 38.3 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
4 Jun 34.5 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
5 Jun 34.4 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm High 33
6 Jun 35.8 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Jun 36.9 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Jun 38.3 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.8 mm Very high 42
9 Jun after 35.8 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Jun after 35.0 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jun after 38.1 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jun after 37.8 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Jun after 36.9 °C 23 % 48 km/h 1.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 May 2018
After · 15 Jun 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 · 594Every 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 Soyopa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 May 2018 and 8 June 2018: 10 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 6,946 hectares (69.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Soyopa (4,926 ha, 2.9 %); San Pedro de la Cueva (2,051 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.

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.