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Apatzingán fire, April 2019 Apatzingán

Out · last detection 22 Apr 2019, 19:49 UTC

The fire started on 14 April 2019 in Apatzingán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,813 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Michoacan de Ocampo since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 94 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
3,813ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
14 Apr 2019 – 22 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Apr
2019
Heat detections
166
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Apr22 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
38km/h · peak gust
18%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. Apatzingán 126,191 inhabitants where it started
    3,830 ha reached on 14 Apr
    2.3 %

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)
14 Apr 33.0 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Apr 34.0 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Apr 35.0 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Apr 36.0 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Apr 35.2 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Apr 33.5 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Apr 34.5 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Apr 34.9 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Apr 34.6 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Apr after 35.3 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
24 Apr after 33.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Apr after 33.6 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Apr after 34.9 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Apr after 34.9 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Apr after 35.3 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Apr after 35.6 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Apr after 36.4 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 May after 37.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 May after 36.2 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Apr 2019
After · 29 Apr 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 · 166Every 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 Apatzingán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 April 2019 and 22 April 2019: 9 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 3,813 hectares (38.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Apatzingán (3,830 ha, 2.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 38 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
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.