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Champotón fire, March 2020 Champotón

Out · last detection 18 Apr 2020, 20:01 UTC

The fire started on 25 March 2020 in Champotón, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,371 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 28th largest in Campeche since 2016 (of 137 with a page). Number 61 in Mexico in 2020, of 243.

Burnt area
3,371ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
25 Mar 2020 – 17 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
25 Mar
2020
Heat detections
415
in a single hotspot: 354 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Mar17 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293031123456789101112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

44°high
49km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 39 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Champotón 15,297 inhabitants where it started
    3,389 ha reached on 18 Mar
    0.5 %

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)
18 Mar 35.8 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Mar 37.5 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Mar 38.7 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Mar 36.3 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Mar 36.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Mar 38.0 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Mar 38.8 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Mar 38.9 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Mar 39.2 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Mar 39.9 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Mar 40.9 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Mar 39.0 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Mar 37.5 °C 33 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Mar 39.0 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Apr 37.9 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
2 Apr 39.7 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Apr 40.7 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Apr 40.0 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Apr 40.0 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Apr 39.3 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Apr 40.0 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Apr 40.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Apr 41.8 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Apr 42.5 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Apr 41.2 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Apr 43.8 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Apr 43.0 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Apr 41.2 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Apr 39.7 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Apr 39.6 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Apr 39.6 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Apr after 39.9 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Apr after 40.3 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Apr after 40.7 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Apr after 41.7 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Apr after 39.7 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Apr after 42.7 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Apr after 39.8 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Apr after 40.8 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm Very high 42
26 Apr after 41.1 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Apr after 38.2 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Apr after 39.3 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Apr after 39.7 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Apr after 37.7 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 44
1 May after 38.5 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 May after 37.9 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 May after 38.7 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 May after 38.1 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Mar 2020
After · 24 Apr 2020

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 · 415Every 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 Champotón fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 March 2020 and 17 April 2020: 24 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 3,371 hectares (33.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Champotón (3,389 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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
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.