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Cabo Corrientes fire, May 2023 Cabo Corrientes

Out · last detection 1 Jun 2023, 20:48 UTC

The fire started on 21 May 2023 in Cabo Corrientes, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,037 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 191th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 174 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.

Burnt area
2,037ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
21 May 2023 – 1 Jun 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
21 May
2023
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
875MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Jun 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 May1 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829301

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
44km/h · peak gust
44%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Cabo Corrientes where it started
    2,047 ha reached on 21 May
    1.3 %

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.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,143 ha (the satellite measured 2,037 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)
21 May 29.2 °C 60 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 May 27.8 °C 63 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 May 27.7 °C 64 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 May 28.1 °C 51 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 May 28.5 °C 44 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 May 28.2 °C 54 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 May 27.0 °C 65 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 May 27.0 °C 65 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
29 May 27.3 °C 64 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
30 May 27.1 °C 60 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
31 May 26.8 °C 66 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
1 Jun 26.3 °C 58 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
2 Jun after 26.7 °C 63 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
3 Jun after 26.0 °C 66 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
4 Jun after 27.1 °C 67 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
5 Jun after 27.0 °C 64 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
6 Jun after 26.8 °C 61 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
7 Jun after 25.5 °C 69 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 18
8 Jun after 26.5 °C 67 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
9 Jun after 26.5 °C 66 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
10 Jun after 27.6 °C 67 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
11 Jun after 27.7 °C 64 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Jun after 27.7 °C 65 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
13 Jun after 28.3 °C 66 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Jun after 28.0 °C 63 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 May 2023
After · 8 Jun 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 24 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak48 µg/m³
Days over the guideline12 days
PM1069 µg/m³
Optical depth0.78
192021222324252627282930311234
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 161Every 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 Cabo Corrientes fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 May 2023 and 1 June 2023: 12 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 2,037 hectares (20.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cabo Corrientes (2,047 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.2 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class 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.