Skip to content
worldfires
MX · Mexico · →

La Huerta fire, 20 April 2016 La Huerta, Villa Purificación

Out · last detection 9 May 2016, 20:03 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2016 in La Huerta, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,866 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 30th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 18 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

Burnt area
5,866ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
20 Apr 2016 – 9 May 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 Apr
2016
Heat detections
342
in a single hotspot: 146 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr9 May

How it evolved, day by day

2021232425262728293012345789

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
49km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 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. La Huerta where it started
    4,716 ha reached on 20 Apr
    2.3 %
  2. Villa Purificación
    1,184 ha reached on 21 Apr
    0.6 %

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)
20 Apr 29.5 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Apr 30.4 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Apr 26.7 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Apr 30.3 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
24 Apr 30.3 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Apr 31.2 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Apr 30.3 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Apr 29.3 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Apr 27.4 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Apr 26.0 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Apr 25.8 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 May 27.2 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 May 27.3 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 May 27.3 °C 46 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 May 28.5 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 May 27.9 °C 54 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 May 28.1 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
7 May 28.4 °C 49 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 May 28.6 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
9 May 29.7 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 May after 28.2 °C 50 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 May after 28.6 °C 53 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
12 May after 30.7 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 May after 30.0 °C 47 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
14 May after 30.7 °C 45 % 36 km/h 5.9 mm Low 6
15 May after 30.8 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
16 May after 30.0 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 May after 29.9 °C 47 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 May after 29.9 °C 47 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 May after 28.0 °C 58 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 May after 28.3 °C 55 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 May after 29.0 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 May after 29.7 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 May after 29.2 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 May after 29.7 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Apr 2016
After · 16 May 2016

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 · 342Every 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 La Huerta fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 April 2016 and 9 May 2016: 20 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 5,866 hectares (58.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: La Huerta (4,716 ha, 2.3 %); Villa Purificación (1,184 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
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.