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Tecate fire, October 2019 Tecate, Tijuana

Out · last detection 26 Oct 2019, 21:28 UTC

The fire started on 25 October 2019 in Tecate, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,641 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 53 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
5,641ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
25 Oct 2019 – 26 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
25 Oct
2019
Heat detections
246
in a single hotspot: 501 MW
Danger at start
70
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2526

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
70km/h · peak gust
2%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 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. Tecate 108,440 inhabitants where it started
    5,484 ha reached on 25 Oct
    2.0 %
  2. Tijuana 1,922,523 inhabitants
    177 ha reached on 25 Oct
    0.1 %

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 25 October 2019 and burned 3,051 ha (the satellite measured 5,641 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)
25 Oct 30.7 °C 2 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
26 Oct 28.8 °C 4 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Oct after 20.7 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 42
28 Oct after 22.8 °C 7 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Oct after 19.2 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Oct after 19.6 °C 3 % 79 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
31 Oct after 24.1 °C 2 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Nov after 25.7 °C 3 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Nov after 27.6 °C 2 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Nov after 25.5 °C 2 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Nov after 25.2 °C 5 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Nov after 24.2 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Oct 2019
After · 2 Nov 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 · 246Every 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 Tecate fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 October 2019 and 26 October 2019: 2 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 5,641 hectares (56.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tecate (5,484 ha, 2.0 %); Tijuana (177 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, class Very 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.