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Hostotipaquillo fire, March 2017 Ixtlán del Río, Magdalena, San Marcos

Out · last detection 22 Apr 2017, 08:25 UTC

The fire started on 27 March 2017 in Hostotipaquillo, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,730 hectares from heat detections, spread across 6 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 2 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
25,730ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
27 Mar 2017 – 21 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
6
municipalities
Started on
27 Mar
2017
Heat detections
1,528
in a single hotspot: 112 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
10.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Mar21 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122

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
57km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 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. Ixtlán del Río
    8,497 ha reached on 28 Mar
    17 %
  2. Magdalena
    6,187 ha reached on 29 Mar
    21 %
  3. San Marcos
    5,614 ha reached on 2 Apr
    18 %
  4. Hostotipaquillo where it started
    3,004 ha reached on 27 Mar
    4.0 %
  5. Amatlán de Cañas
    2,455 ha reached on 14 Apr
    4.7 %
  6. Etzatlán
    100 ha
    0.3 %

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, this fire started on 27 March 2017 and burned 15,906 ha (the satellite measured 25,730 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)
27 Mar 29.5 °C 7 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Mar 28.7 °C 5 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Mar 27.3 °C 7 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Mar 28.7 °C 6 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Mar 27.7 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Apr 27.9 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Apr 26.3 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Apr 30.0 °C 6 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Apr 29.0 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Apr 31.6 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Apr 32.1 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Apr 30.7 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Apr 31.6 °C 6 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Apr 31.3 °C 9 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Apr 31.5 °C 7 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Apr 30.9 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Apr 31.0 °C 11 % 54 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 58
13 Apr 30.3 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Apr 30.0 °C 11 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Apr 29.8 °C 11 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Apr 29.4 °C 13 % 57 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 48
17 Apr 27.5 °C 12 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Apr 29.0 °C 7 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Apr 30.2 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Apr 31.1 °C 8 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Apr 29.8 °C 14 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Apr after 31.3 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 48
23 Apr after 31.1 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 41
24 Apr after 28.3 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 43
25 Apr after 28.1 °C 13 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Apr after 27.7 °C 7 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Apr after 29.2 °C 4 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Apr after 28.6 °C 5 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Apr after 29.2 °C 8 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Apr after 30.4 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 May after 31.5 °C 9 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Mar 2017
After · 28 Apr 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 · 1,528Every 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 Hostotipaquillo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 March 2017 and 21 April 2017: 26 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 25,730 hectares (257.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 6 municipalities: Ixtlán del Río (8,497 ha, 17 %); Magdalena (6,187 ha, 21 %); San Marcos (5,614 ha, 18 %); Hostotipaquillo (3,004 ha, 4.0 %); Amatlán de Cañas (2,455 ha, 4.7 %); Etzatlán (100 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.

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.