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Cherán fire, April 2021 Paracho, Cherán

Out · last detection 23 Apr 2021, 19:24 UTC

The fire started on 10 April 2021 in Cherán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,461 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 43th largest in Michoacan de Ocampo since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 152 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.

Burnt area
2,461ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
10 Apr 2021 – 23 Apr 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Apr
2021
Heat detections
134
in a single hotspot: 213 MW
Danger at start
21
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Apr 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Apr23 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

101112131416171819212223

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
49km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 26 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Paracho
    1,314 ha reached on 12 Apr
    5.4 %
  2. Cherán where it started
    1,160 ha reached on 9 Apr
    5.2 %

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)
9 Apr 25.0 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
10 Apr 25.7 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Apr 25.9 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Apr 24.9 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
13 Apr 26.1 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
14 Apr 26.0 °C 25 % 36 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 13
15 Apr 26.5 °C 22 % 39 km/h 2.0 mm Low 11
16 Apr 26.1 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 20
17 Apr 24.7 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Apr 24.8 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Apr 24.2 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Apr 25.4 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Apr 26.3 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Apr 25.3 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Apr 25.4 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Apr after 26.1 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Apr after 26.8 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Apr after 26.3 °C 27 % 37 km/h 2.7 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Apr 2021
After · 30 Apr 2021

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 · 134Every 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 Cherán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 April 2021 and 23 April 2021: 14 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 2,461 hectares (24.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Paracho (1,314 ha, 5.4 %); Cherán (1,160 ha, 5.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.

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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.