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Tijuana fire, 8 December 2020 Tijuana

Out · last detection 9 Dec 2020, 10:21 UTC

The fire started on 8 December 2020 in Tijuana, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,346 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 32th largest in Baja California since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 114 in Mexico in 2020, of 243.

Burnt area
2,346ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
8 Dec 2020 – 9 Dec 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
8 Dec
2020
Heat detections
64
in a single hotspot: 136 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Dec 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Dec9 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

89

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

The weather it burned in

21°high
32km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 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. Tijuana 1,922,523 inhabitants where it started
    2,351 ha reached on 8 Dec
    1.9 %

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.

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)
8 Dec 21.2 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Dec 17.3 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Dec after 13.7 °C 51 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
11 Dec after 13.4 °C 50 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
12 Dec after 11.9 °C 59 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
13 Dec after 17.9 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Dec after 11.7 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 12
15 Dec after 17.2 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Dec after 18.5 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Dec after 13.7 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
18 Dec after 16.4 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Dec after 18.6 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Dec 2020
After · 16 Dec 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 · 64Every 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 8 December 2020 and 9 December 2020: 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 2,346 hectares (23.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tijuana (2,351 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 21.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.

Report an error
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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.