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Chilchotla fire, April 2019 Tlachichuca, Lafragua, Chilchotla

Out · last detection 25 Apr 2019, 07:41 UTC

The fire started on 13 April 2019 in Chilchotla, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,911 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Puebla since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 89 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
3,911ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
13 Apr 2019 – 25 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
13 Apr
2019
Heat detections
182
in a single hotspot: 145 MW
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Apr25 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

131415161819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

17°high
43km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.6 mm on 26 Apr.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 50 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tlachichuca
    1,909 ha reached on 13 Apr
    4.5 %
  2. Lafragua
    1,021 ha reached on 14 Apr
    5.6 %
  3. Chilchotla where it started
    1,000 ha reached on 13 Apr
    6.8 %

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, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,632 ha (the satellite measured 3,911 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)
13 Apr 16.3 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
14 Apr 11.2 °C 24 % 38 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 1
15 Apr 13.4 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 1
16 Apr 15.9 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 3
17 Apr 16.1 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 4
18 Apr 16.8 °C 31 % 37 km/h 8.0 mm Very low 0
19 Apr 7.2 °C 79 % 34 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 0
20 Apr 11.1 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
21 Apr 14.7 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 1
22 Apr 15.8 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
23 Apr 15.9 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 4
24 Apr 17.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
25 Apr 15.4 °C 27 % 34 km/h 8.5 mm Very low 0
26 Apr after 9.7 °C 73 % 34 km/h 14.6 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Apr 2019
After · 2 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 · 182Every 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 Chilchotla fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 April 2019 and 25 April 2019: 13 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 3,911 hectares (39.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tlachichuca (1,909 ha, 4.5 %); Lafragua (1,021 ha, 5.6 %); Chilchotla (1,000 ha, 6.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 17.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
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.