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MX · Mexico · –

Del Nayar fire, 12 May 2019 Del Nayar

Out · last detection 26 May 2019, 20:53 UTC

The fire started on 12 May 2019 in Del Nayar, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,480 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 77th largest in Nayarit since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 184 in Mexico in 2019, of 363.

Burnt area
2,480ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
12 May 2019 – 29 May 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 May
2019
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 61 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
80MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 May29 May
26 May 2019

How it evolved, day by day

15 May 2019 · 7 MW · 4 16 May 2019 · 11 MW · 5 17 May 2019 · 16 MW · 5 18 May 2019 · 21 MW · 9 19 May 2019 · 659 MW · 21 20 May 2019 · 66 MW · 20 21 May 2019 · 45 MW · 11 22 May 2019 · 102 MW · 21 23 May 2019 · 28 MW · 6 24 May 2019 · 0 MW · 1 25 May 2019 · 3 MW · 1 26 May 2019 · 6 MW · 1
15 May 19 May 24 May

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
55km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 30 May.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.6% of the area of London (25 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. Del Nayar where it started
    2,496 ha reached on 15 May
    0.5 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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)

Started with Strong wind: 19 % of the area in Mexico 60 days without rain: 25 % of the area in Mexico

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
12 May 28.5 °C 23 % 55 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 53
13 May 29.2 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 May 30.5 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 May 30.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 May 30.8 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 May 30.3 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 May 29.2 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 May 31.8 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 May 30.8 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 May 31.1 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 May 30.8 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 May 31.7 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 May 31.9 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 May 31.7 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 May 30.3 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 May 29.8 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.6 mm High 38
28 May 29.8 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.8 mm High 30
29 May 31.3 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 May after 30.4 °C 38 % 38 km/h 1.1 mm High 30

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 53.0, a minimum humidity of 23% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 22.

FWI at the start 53.0
Minimum humidity 23 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Rosamorada fire, April 2018
2,904 ha 13 days FWI 52.3 Min. humidity 26 % 23 km away, in 2018

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 6 May.

What happened to them

13 days
median duration
4,914 ha
median area
18 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 10 of 22 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 2,480 ha against a median of 4,914 ha. It lasted 18 days, against 13 days.

In 12 of 22, 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 1.7 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

1.1 mmfirst rain
30 Maythe day after it ended
55km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 29 May, and on 30 May 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 22, with a median of 1.7 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 · 5 May 2019
After · 5 Jun 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 · 105Every 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 Del Nayar fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 May 2019 to 29 May 2019 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 May 2019 to 23 May 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,480 hectares (24.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Del Nayar (2,496 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
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: 22. Their median duration was 13 days and their median area 4,914 ha; 18 % went past 10,000 ha. In 12 of 22, 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 1.7 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 15 May 2019 to 23 May 2019. 105 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 2020, 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.