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Etzatlán fire, April 2021 Etzatlán

Out · last detection 23 Apr 2021, 21:04 UTC

The fire started on 11 April 2021 in Etzatlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,966 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 202th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 207 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.

Burnt area
1,966ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
11 Apr 2021 – 23 Apr 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 Apr
2021
Heat detections
116
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
827MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Apr 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Apr23 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1112131417181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
56km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Etzatlán where it started
    1,975 ha reached on 11 Apr
    5.8 %

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, 4 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 913 ha (the satellite measured 1,966 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)
11 Apr 28.1 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Apr 28.8 °C 18 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Apr 29.6 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Apr 29.4 °C 17 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Apr 28.8 °C 15 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Apr 28.7 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Apr 27.4 °C 13 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Apr 26.9 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Apr 27.3 °C 19 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Apr 27.8 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Apr 28.3 °C 18 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Apr 27.1 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Apr 27.3 °C 24 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Apr after 27.3 °C 21 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Apr after 28.7 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Apr after 28.4 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Apr after 28.3 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Apr after 27.6 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Apr after 27.3 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
30 Apr after 26.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 May after 26.1 °C 25 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 May after 26.3 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 May after 26.6 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Apr 2021
After · 30 Apr 2021

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 · 116Every 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 Etzatlán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 April 2021 and 23 April 2021: 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 1,966 hectares (19.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Etzatlán (1,975 ha, 5.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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
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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.