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Iturbide fire, July 2018 Iturbide, Linares

Out · last detection 25 Jul 2018, 19:32 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2018 in Iturbide, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,628 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Nuevo León since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 56 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
3,628ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
15 Jul 2018 – 25 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 Jul
2018
Heat detections
185
in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul25 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819202122232425

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
49km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 26 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Iturbide where it started
    2,978 ha reached on 15 Jul
    5.3 %
  2. Linares
    671 ha reached on 18 Jul
    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 15 July 2018 and burned 2,156 ha (the satellite measured 3,628 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)
15 Jul 27.6 °C 57 % 39 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 1
16 Jul 28.8 °C 48 % 40 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 2
17 Jul 28.4 °C 49 % 35 km/h 0.9 mm Very low 4
18 Jul 29.1 °C 46 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Low 8
19 Jul 30.2 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.8 mm Low 9
20 Jul 29.4 °C 44 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
21 Jul 29.5 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm Low 11
22 Jul 30.5 °C 41 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
23 Jul 31.4 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
24 Jul 31.6 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Jul 29.3 °C 47 % 42 km/h 2.3 mm Low 5
26 Jul after 26.8 °C 69 % 31 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2018
After · 1 Aug 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 · 185Every 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 Iturbide fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 July 2018 and 25 July 2018: 11 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 3,628 hectares (36.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Iturbide (2,978 ha, 5.3 %); Linares (671 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
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.