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Ayotlán fire, May 2017 Ayotlán, Jesús María

Out · last detection 16 May 2017, 20:27 UTC

The fire started on 1 May 2017 in Ayotlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,172 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 77th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 128 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
3,172ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
1 May 2017 – 15 May 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
1 May
2017
Heat detections
140
in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
897MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 May 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 May15 May

How it evolved, day by day

12345678910111213141516

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
48km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 25 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Ayotlán where it started
    3,143 ha reached on 1 May
    7.2 %
  2. Jesús María
    47 ha reached on 1 May
    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.

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)
1 May 31.9 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 May 30.8 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 May 29.3 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 May 31.8 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 May 28.7 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 May 28.7 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 May 29.1 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 May 28.2 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 May 30.1 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 May 32.0 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 May 31.1 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 May 32.3 °C 20 % 48 km/h 1.1 mm Very high 39
13 May 30.7 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 May 30.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 May 32.2 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 May after 32.5 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 May after 32.9 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 May after 32.7 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 May after 33.3 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 May after 33.1 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 May after 33.8 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 May after 34.7 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 May after 33.6 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 May after 33.3 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 May after 32.6 °C 19 % 32 km/h 2.5 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Apr 2017
After · 22 May 2017

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 · 140Every 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 Ayotlán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 May 2017 and 15 May 2017: 15 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 3,172 hectares (31.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ayotlán (3,143 ha, 7.2 %); Jesús María (47 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.