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Arcelia fire, March 2016 Arcelia

Out · last detection 12 Apr 2016, 20:09 UTC

The fire started on 31 March 2016 in Arcelia, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,317 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 327th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 92 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

Burnt area
2,317ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
31 Mar 2016 – 12 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Mar
2016
Heat detections
130
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
676MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Mar12 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

31123456789101112

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
47km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 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. Arcelia where it started
    2,330 ha reached on 31 Mar
    3.1 %

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.

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)
31 Mar 36.5 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Apr 37.3 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Apr 38.4 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Apr 37.5 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Apr 37.5 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Apr 38.9 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Apr 38.1 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Apr 39.5 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Apr 38.4 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Apr 38.2 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Apr 36.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Apr 39.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Apr 38.7 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Apr after 39.5 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Apr after 36.8 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Apr after 38.0 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Apr after 36.8 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Apr after 38.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Apr after 38.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Apr after 35.7 °C 26 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Apr after 34.2 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Apr after 36.5 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 44
22 Apr after 32.1 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Apr after 31.5 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Apr after 35.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Apr after 36.4 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Apr after 35.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Apr after 38.6 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Apr after 38.9 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Mar 2016
After · 19 Apr 2016

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 · 130Every 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 Arcelia fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 March 2016 and 12 April 2016: 13 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 2,317 hectares (23.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Arcelia (2,330 ha, 3.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.

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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.