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Canelas fire, May 2017 Canelas, Topia

Out · last detection 21 May 2017, 20:35 UTC

The fire started on 12 May 2017 in Canelas, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,289 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 131th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 195 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
2,289ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
12 May 2017 – 21 May 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 May
2017
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
704MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 May 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 May21 May

How it evolved, day by day

121314161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
68km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 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. Canelas where it started
    1,963 ha reached on 12 May
    2.2 %
  2. Topia
    337 ha reached on 16 May
    0.2 %

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)
12 May 26.6 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 38
13 May 24.9 °C 25 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 May 23.9 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 May 22.9 °C 32 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 May 22.3 °C 26 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 May 24.6 °C 16 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 May 24.7 °C 18 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 May 24.3 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 May 27.1 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 May 26.3 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 May after 27.2 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 May after 28.7 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 May after 28.6 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 41
25 May after 28.0 °C 26 % 53 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 41
26 May after 29.3 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 May after 30.1 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 May after 28.8 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 40
29 May after 27.8 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 42
30 May after 26.1 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
31 May after 25.5 °C 22 % 56 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 May 2017
After · 28 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 · 105Every 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 Canelas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 May 2017 and 21 May 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 2,289 hectares (22.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Canelas (1,963 ha, 2.2 %); Topia (337 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

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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.