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Guanaceví fire, May 2017 Guanaceví

Out · last detection 17 May 2017, 08:55 UTC

The fire started on 9 May 2017 in Guanaceví, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,149 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 142th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 211 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
2,149ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
9 May 2017 – 17 May 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 May
2017
Heat detections
159
in a single hotspot: 203 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 May 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 May17 May

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
70km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 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. Guanaceví where it started
    2,155 ha reached on 9 May
    0.4 %

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)
9 May 17.4 °C 23 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 May 19.5 °C 17 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 May 22.8 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 May 23.9 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 May 22.8 °C 20 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 May 20.9 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 May 19.7 °C 27 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 May 19.0 °C 24 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 May 22.1 °C 13 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 May after 22.0 °C 14 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 May after 21.7 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 May after 24.7 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 May after 23.7 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 May after 24.7 °C 14 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 May after 27.1 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 May after 27.3 °C 18 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 May after 26.4 °C 18 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 May after 27.2 °C 17 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 May after 27.4 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 May 2017
After · 24 May 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 · 159Every 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 Guanaceví fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 May 2017 and 17 May 2017: 9 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 2,149 hectares (21.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Guanaceví (2,155 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.