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Acatepec fire, May 2020 Acatepec, Ayutla de los Libres

Out · last detection 8 May 2020, 20:26 UTC

The fire started on 3 May 2020 in Acatepec, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,577 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 578th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 229 in Mexico in 2020, of 243.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,577ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
3 May 2020 – 7 May 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
3 May
2020
Heat detections
46
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
432MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 May 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 May7 May

How it evolved, day by day

34678

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
55km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 223 ha in 2018, 398 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Acatepec where it started
    1,499 ha reached on 3 May
    2.4 %
  2. Ayutla de los Libres
    87 ha
    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, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,127 ha (the satellite measured 1,577 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)
3 May 34.3 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
4 May 34.4 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 May 33.7 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 May 34.4 °C 21 % 55 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
7 May 32.9 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
8 May after 34.9 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm High 36
9 May after 33.4 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 May after 34.7 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.7 mm High 31
11 May after 33.7 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
12 May after 34.7 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 May after 34.1 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 May after 34.3 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 May after 34.3 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 May after 34.9 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 May after 36.4 °C 25 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Apr 2020
After · 14 May 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 · 46Every 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 Acatepec fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 May 2020 and 7 May 2020: 5 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 1,577 hectares (15.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Acatepec (1,499 ha, 2.4 %); Ayutla de los Libres (87 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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

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.