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MX · Mexico · –

Chilpancingo de los Bravo fire, 9 April 2017 Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Leonardo Bravo

Out · last detection 4 May 2017, 19:11 UTC

The fire started on 9 April 2017 in Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,635 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 49th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 582 with a page). Number 34 in Mexico in 2017, of 374.

Burnt area
7,635ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
9 Apr 2017 – 4 May 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Apr
2017
Heat detections
337
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Average daily power
63MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Apr4 May
4 May 2017

How it evolved, day by day

9 Apr 2017 · 1 MW · 1 10 Apr 2017 · 77 MW · 15 11 Apr 2017 · 20 MW · 13 12 Apr 2017 · 167 MW · 44 13 Apr 2017 · 186 MW · 40 14 Apr 2017 · 168 MW · 19 15 Apr 2017 · 28 MW · 5 16 Apr 2017 · 8 MW · 5 17 Apr 2017 · 44 MW · 18 19 Apr 2017 · 2 MW · 2 20 Apr 2017 · 30 MW · 7 21 Apr 2017 · 90 MW · 8 22 Apr 2017 · 113 MW · 20 23 Apr 2017 · 31 MW · 28 24 Apr 2017 · 24 MW · 13 25 Apr 2017 · 257 MW · 43 26 Apr 2017 · 95 MW · 18 27 Apr 2017 · 8 MW · 6 28 Apr 2017 · 77 MW · 10 29 Apr 2017 · 39 MW · 3 30 Apr 2017 · 16 MW · 2 1 May 2017 · 26 MW · 5 2 May 2017 · 21 MW · 5 3 May 2017 · 20 MW · 4 4 May 2017 · 17 MW · 3
9 Apr 14 Apr 20 Apr 25 Apr 30 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
48km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 15.0 mm on 5 May.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 652 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.8% of the area of London (76 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Chilpancingo de los Bravo 283,354 inhabitants where it started
    6,929 ha reached on 9 Apr
    3.2 %
  2. 1,209 ha reached on 13 Apr
    1.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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 30.5 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.5 mm High 27
10 Apr 30.6 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
11 Apr 32.5 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Apr 31.3 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
13 Apr 29.9 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
14 Apr 29.8 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Apr 29.6 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
16 Apr 30.0 °C 34 % 37 km/h 5.4 mm High 27
17 Apr 29.2 °C 35 % 35 km/h 11.4 mm Very low 4
18 Apr 27.3 °C 40 % 43 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 1
19 Apr 28.4 °C 31 % 36 km/h 5.3 mm Very low 4
20 Apr 29.2 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 2
21 Apr 29.4 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
22 Apr 30.3 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Apr 29.9 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
24 Apr 28.8 °C 43 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm High 22
25 Apr 29.6 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
26 Apr 29.7 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Apr 29.3 °C 49 % 39 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 19
28 Apr 31.2 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
29 Apr 29.0 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Apr 33.0 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 20
1 May 32.1 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
2 May 31.1 °C 40 % 48 km/h 1.1 mm High 24
3 May 30.5 °C 42 % 38 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 18
4 May 31.0 °C 41 % 35 km/h 7.1 mm Low 8
5 May after 27.3 °C 59 % 36 km/h 15.0 mm Very low 2

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 27.1, a minimum humidity of 35% and 11 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 27.1
Minimum humidity 35 %
Days without rain 11
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Chilpancingo de los Bravo fire, May 2020
2,298 ha 12 days FWI 25.0 Min. humidity 33 % 8 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 3 Jun.

What happened to them

15 days
median duration
4,198 ha
median area
0 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 19 had it)

It was 1.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 26 days, against 15 days.

Only 1 of its 19 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 5 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.4 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

15.0 mmfirst rain
5 Maythe day after it ended
48km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 4 May, and on 5 May 15.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 19, with a median of 1.4 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Apr 2017
After · 11 May 2017

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 · 337Every 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 Chilpancingo de los Bravo fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 April 2017 to 4 May 2017 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 April 2017 to 28 April 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,635 hectares (76.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chilpancingo de los Bravo (6,929 ha, 3.2 %); Leonardo Bravo (1,209 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 19. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 4,198 ha; 0 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 19 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 5 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.4 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 8,093 → 7,635 ha.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 9 April 2017 to 28 April 2017. 337 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.