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Tijuana fire, 17 September 2020 Tijuana

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2020, 20:19 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2020 in Tijuana, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,689 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 54th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 207 in Mexico in 2020, of 243.

Burnt area
1,689ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
17 Sept 2020 – 19 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Sept
2020
Heat detections
45
in a single hotspot: 132 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

171819

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
44km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Tijuana 1,922,523 inhabitants where it started
    1,695 ha reached on 17 Sept
    1.4 %

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 17 September 2020 and burned 2,271 ha (the satellite measured 1,689 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)
17 Sept 35.4 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Sept 34.3 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Sept 30.6 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Sept after 28.1 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Sept after 27.8 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Sept after 29.4 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Sept after 30.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Sept after 29.6 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Sept after 26.7 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Sept after 26.7 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Sept after 26.2 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Sept after 31.0 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Sept after 35.0 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2020
After · 26 Sept 2020

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 · 45Every 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 Tijuana fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2020 and 19 September 2020: 3 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 1,689 hectares (16.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tijuana (1,695 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.