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Juchitlán fire, May 2019 Juchitlán, Ejutla

Out · last detection 15 May 2019, 08:07 UTC

The fire started on 8 May 2019 in Juchitlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,785 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 228th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 285 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,785ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
8 May 2019 – 15 May 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 May
2019
Heat detections
81
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
408MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 May15 May

How it evolved, day by day

89101112131415

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
54km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Juchitlán where it started
    1,236 ha reached on 8 May
    5.0 %
  2. Ejutla
    558 ha reached on 8 May
    1.9 %

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)
8 May 31.0 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 May 30.3 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 May 31.5 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 May 32.5 °C 13 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 May 30.1 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 May 31.0 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 May 31.8 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 May 31.5 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 May after 32.3 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 May after 32.1 °C 18 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 May after 30.6 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 May after 33.6 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 May after 33.2 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 May after 32.6 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 May after 32.3 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 May after 33.4 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 May after 32.8 °C 16 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 May after 32.6 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 May 2019
After · 22 May 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 · 81Every 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 Juchitlán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 May 2019 and 15 May 2019: 8 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 1,785 hectares (17.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Juchitlán (1,236 ha, 5.0 %); Ejutla (558 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.

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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.