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Ixtapa fire, 12 April 2019 Ixtapa, Zinacantán

Out · last detection 22 Apr 2019, 19:48 UTC

The fire started on 12 April 2019 in Ixtapa, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,084 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 145th largest in Chiapas since 2016 (of 265 with a page). Number 234 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
2,084ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
12 Apr 2019 – 21 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Apr
2019
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
508MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Apr21 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
65km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 2 May.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 327 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Ixtapa where it started
    1,994 ha reached on 10 Apr
    7.1 %
  2. Zinacantán
    101 ha reached on 17 Apr
    0.5 %

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)
10 Apr 30.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Apr 30.8 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Apr 29.9 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Apr 29.6 °C 27 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Apr 28.5 °C 36 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Apr 26.5 °C 50 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Apr 28.8 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 19
17 Apr 29.3 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
18 Apr 30.6 °C 39 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Apr 22.9 °C 52 % 65 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16
20 Apr 28.0 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Apr 29.6 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Apr after 30.0 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Apr after 30.5 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Apr after 31.3 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Apr after 29.4 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
26 Apr after 26.5 °C 53 % 53 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
27 Apr after 26.1 °C 56 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
28 Apr after 29.5 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 21
29 Apr after 31.7 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Apr after 30.1 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 May after 29.2 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
2 May after 28.1 °C 49 % 25 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Apr 2019
After · 28 Apr 2019

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 · 105Every 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 Ixtapa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 April 2019 and 21 April 2019: 10 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 2,084 hectares (20.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ixtapa (1,994 ha, 7.1 %); Zinacantán (101 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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.

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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.