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Cihuatlán fire, April 2016 Cihuatlán, Cuautitlán de García Barragán

Out · last detection 29 Apr 2016, 08:39 UTC

The fire started on 26 April 2016 in Cihuatlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,829 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 222th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 137 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

Burnt area
1,829ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
26 Apr 2016 – 29 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Apr
2016
Heat detections
77
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
453MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Apr29 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

26272829

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
47km/h · peak gust
43%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 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. Cihuatlán where it started
    1,771 ha reached on 26 Apr
    3.5 %
  2. Cuautitlán de García Barragán
    69 ha
    0.0 %

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)
26 Apr 27.2 °C 43 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Apr 25.8 °C 54 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Apr 24.2 °C 56 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Apr 23.3 °C 57 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Apr after 22.8 °C 61 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
1 May after 23.5 °C 56 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 May after 23.7 °C 63 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
3 May after 24.0 °C 65 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
4 May after 24.9 °C 61 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
5 May after 24.9 °C 68 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
6 May after 25.1 °C 67 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 May after 25.2 °C 64 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
8 May after 25.3 °C 62 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
9 May after 25.9 °C 58 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Apr 2016
After · 6 May 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 · 77Every 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 Cihuatlán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 April 2016 and 29 April 2016: 4 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 1,829 hectares (18.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cihuatlán (1,771 ha, 3.5 %); Cuautitlán de García Barragán (69 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.2 °C, humidity dropped to 43 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.

Report an error
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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.