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Chilchota fire, March 2016 Chilchota, Cherán, Zacapu

Out · last detection 7 Apr 2016, 20:03 UTC

The fire started on 29 March 2016 in Chilchota, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,529 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 106th largest in Michoacan de Ocampo since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 200 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,529ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
29 Mar 2016 – 7 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
29 Mar
2016
Heat detections
48
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
427MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Mar7 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

30123457

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
59km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 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. Chilchota where it started
    677 ha reached on 24 Mar
    2.2 %
  2. Cherán
    529 ha reached on 30 Mar
    2.4 %
  3. Zacapu
    331 ha reached on 27 Mar
    0.7 %

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)
29 Mar 25.4 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
30 Mar 25.8 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
31 Mar 25.3 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
1 Apr 24.4 °C 29 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Apr 25.9 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
3 Apr 25.5 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
4 Apr 27.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
5 Apr 28.9 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Apr 28.2 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Apr 28.2 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
8 Apr after 28.0 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 15
9 Apr after 28.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
10 Apr after 26.8 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Apr after 27.5 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Apr after 28.4 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Apr after 28.0 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Apr after 26.1 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Apr after 25.4 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Apr after 24.8 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Apr after 26.9 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Mar 2016
After · 14 Apr 2016

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 · 48Every 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 Chilchota fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 March 2016 and 7 April 2016: 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 1,529 hectares (15.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Chilchota (677 ha, 2.2 %); Cherán (529 ha, 2.4 %); Zacapu (331 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.