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Durango fire, June 2017 Durango, Pueblo Nuevo

Out · last detection 25 Jun 2017, 19:38 UTC

The fire started on 14 June 2017 in Durango, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,948 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 42th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 66 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
4,948ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
14 Jun 2017 – 25 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
14 Jun
2017
Heat detections
319
in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jun25 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122232425

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
57km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.9 mm on 26 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Durango 518,709 inhabitants where it started
    4,386 ha reached on 12 Jun
    0.5 %
  2. Pueblo Nuevo
    574 ha reached on 14 Jun
    0.1 %

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, 4 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 3,566 ha (the satellite measured 4,948 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)
10 Jun 25.3 °C 53 % 31 km/h 9.9 mm Very low 1
11 Jun 26.5 °C 43 % 39 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 3
12 Jun 31.1 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
13 Jun 33.0 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
14 Jun 32.4 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Jun 32.1 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Jun 30.5 °C 21 % 42 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 18
17 Jun 30.9 °C 21 % 32 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 18
18 Jun 30.7 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 21
19 Jun 30.9 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Jun 29.4 °C 22 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jun 31.0 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.6 mm High 32
22 Jun 30.6 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Jun 30.9 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jun 29.2 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Jun 28.8 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
26 Jun after 25.9 °C 38 % 37 km/h 5.9 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jun 2017
After · 2 Jul 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 · 319Every 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 Durango fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 June 2017 and 25 June 2017: 12 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 4,948 hectares (49.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Durango (4,386 ha, 0.5 %); Pueblo Nuevo (574 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very 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
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.