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Bolaños fire, 21 May 2017 Bolaños, Mezquitic, Villa Guerrero

Out · last detection 12 Jun 2017, 09:09 UTC

The fire started on 21 May 2017 in Bolaños, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,907 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 8 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
15,907ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
21 May 2017 – 11 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
21 May
2017
Heat detections
1,004
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
8.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 May11 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

2122232425262728293031123456789101112

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
48km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 23 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Bolaños where it started
    9,514 ha reached on 17 May
    11 %
  2. Mezquitic
    6,379 ha reached on 19 May
    1.9 %
  3. Villa Guerrero
    82 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, 4 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 8,513 ha (the satellite measured 15,907 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)
17 May 30.4 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 May 30.3 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 May 29.9 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 May 31.0 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 May 31.7 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 May 32.8 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 May 30.8 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 May 31.3 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 May 31.0 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 May 33.3 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 May 32.3 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 47
28 May 31.0 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 44
29 May 31.4 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 May 29.9 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 May 29.5 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 43
1 Jun 30.5 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 44
2 Jun 31.2 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Jun 30.5 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Jun 31.0 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Jun 31.2 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Jun 31.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Jun 30.7 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.9 mm High 31
8 Jun 28.8 °C 25 % 30 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Jun 28.6 °C 28 % 35 km/h 4.1 mm Low 7
10 Jun 28.1 °C 33 % 37 km/h 1.8 mm Low 10
11 Jun 28.6 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Jun after 31.2 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Jun after 33.2 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Jun after 33.0 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Jun after 33.0 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Jun after 30.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.6 mm High 33
17 Jun after 32.3 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm High 32
18 Jun after 30.5 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
19 Jun after 32.1 °C 11 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Jun after 30.0 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Jun after 31.0 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jun after 30.5 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
23 Jun after 30.8 °C 23 % 31 km/h 1.2 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 May 2017
After · 18 Jun 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 · 1,004Every 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 Bolaños fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 May 2017 and 11 June 2017: 22 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 15,907 hectares (159.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bolaños (9,514 ha, 11 %); Mezquitic (6,379 ha, 1.9 %); Villa Guerrero (82 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.

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.