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Guachochi fire, April 2018 Guachochi

Out · last detection 21 Apr 2018, 09:39 UTC

The fire started on 14 April 2018 in Guachochi, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,779 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 180th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 179 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,779ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
14 Apr 2018 – 21 Apr 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Apr
2018
Heat detections
92
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
439MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Apr 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Apr21 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
62km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 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. Guachochi where it started
    1,779 ha reached on 14 Apr
    0.2 %

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)
14 Apr 21.4 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Apr 24.5 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Apr 24.1 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Apr 22.4 °C 18 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Apr 25.8 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Apr 25.7 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Apr 23.2 °C 22 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Apr 23.4 °C 19 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Apr after 22.5 °C 30 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Apr after 25.9 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Apr after 25.2 °C 15 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Apr after 24.5 °C 27 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Apr after 24.0 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Apr after 20.8 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
28 Apr after 23.6 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
29 Apr after 22.8 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.6 mm High 29
30 Apr after 21.7 °C 23 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 May after 21.9 °C 26 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Apr 2018
After · 28 Apr 2018

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 · 92Every 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 Guachochi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 April 2018 and 21 April 2018: 8 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 1,779 hectares (17.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Guachochi (1,779 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 25.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.