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Cerritos fire, May 2019 San Nicolás Tolentino, Cerritos

Out · last detection 22 May 2019, 07:34 UTC

The fire started on 7 May 2019 in Cerritos, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,892 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in San Luis Potosí since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 91 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
3,892ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
7 May 2019 – 22 May 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 May
2019
Heat detections
259
in a single hotspot: 448 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
14.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 May22 May

How it evolved, day by day

78910111314171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
58km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 24 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. San Nicolás Tolentino
    3,357 ha reached on 8 May
    4.8 %
  2. Cerritos where it started
    554 ha reached on 7 May
    0.6 %

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, this fire started on 8 May 2019 and burned 1,635 ha (the satellite measured 3,892 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)
7 May 33.5 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm High 24
8 May 34.9 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
9 May 34.2 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 May 33.0 °C 20 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 May 32.4 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 39
12 May 35.6 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 May 34.9 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 May 32.1 °C 34 % 55 km/h 2.2 mm High 22
15 May 25.6 °C 66 % 38 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 4
16 May 30.3 °C 46 % 35 km/h 2.1 mm Low 6
17 May 35.4 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
18 May 36.1 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 May 35.6 °C 14 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 May 33.5 °C 34 % 44 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 20
21 May 37.4 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 May 36.0 °C 23 % 50 km/h 1.3 mm High 34
23 May after 31.6 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
24 May after 30.1 °C 38 % 45 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Apr 2019
After · 29 May 2019

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 · 259Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cerritos fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 May 2019 and 22 May 2019: 16 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 3,892 hectares (38.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Nicolás Tolentino (3,357 ha, 4.8 %); Cerritos (554 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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
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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.