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Jala fire, May 2017 Jala

Out · last detection 15 May 2017, 20:46 UTC

The fire started on 4 May 2017 in Jala, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,237 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 94th largest in Nayarit since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 203 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
2,237ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
4 May 2017 – 14 May 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
4 May
2017
Heat detections
111
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
780MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 May 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 May14 May

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112131415

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
53km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 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. Jala where it started
    2,248 ha reached on 4 May
    4.4 %

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)
4 May 31.7 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 May 30.6 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.8 mm High 35
6 May 30.0 °C 23 % 53 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
7 May 28.2 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 May 29.0 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 May 29.2 °C 29 % 46 km/h 1.1 mm High 26
10 May 30.3 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 May 31.6 °C 21 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 May 30.8 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 May 30.4 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 40
14 May 31.3 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 May after 30.3 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 May after 31.3 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 May after 31.8 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 May after 31.5 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 May after 30.5 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 May after 30.9 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 May after 32.8 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 May after 32.2 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 May after 30.9 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 May after 31.1 °C 21 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 May after 30.9 °C 25 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 May after 31.8 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 43
27 May after 31.9 °C 24 % 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 · 27 Apr 2017
After · 21 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 · 111Every 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 Jala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 May 2017 and 14 May 2017: 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 2,237 hectares (22.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Jala (2,248 ha, 4.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.