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Bacalar fire, 22 February 2017 Bacalar, Hopelchén

Out · last detection 3 Mar 2017, 07:22 UTC

The fire started on 22 February 2017 in Bacalar, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,743 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 36th largest in Quintana Roo since 2016 (of 40 with a page). Number 297 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
1,743ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
22 Feb 2017 – 3 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 Feb
2017
Heat detections
89
in a single hotspot: 103 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Feb3 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

222324252628123

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
52km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 7 Mar.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Bacalar 12,527 inhabitants where it started
    1,318 ha reached on 22 Feb
    0.2 %
  2. Hopelchén 42,140 inhabitants
    434 ha reached on 22 Feb
    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 939 ha (the satellite measured 1,743 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)
22 Feb 33.3 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Feb 34.2 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Feb 36.5 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Feb 35.5 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Feb 34.7 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Feb 33.6 °C 47 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Feb 35.5 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Mar 33.4 °C 45 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Mar 36.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Mar 35.9 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Mar after 32.6 °C 49 % 45 km/h 0.7 mm High 25
5 Mar after 32.2 °C 51 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm High 25
6 Mar after 31.2 °C 48 % 48 km/h 0.8 mm High 23
7 Mar after 32.3 °C 53 % 52 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Feb 2017
After · 10 Mar 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 · 89Every 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 Bacalar fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 February 2017 and 3 March 2017: 10 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 1,743 hectares (17.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bacalar (1,318 ha, 0.2 %); Hopelchén (434 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.