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La Huerta fire, 8 May 2016 La Huerta, Villa Purificación

Out · last detection 18 May 2016, 20:34 UTC

The fire started on 8 May 2016 in La Huerta, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,336 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 146th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 89 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

Burnt area
2,336ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
8 May 2016 – 18 May 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 May
2016
Heat detections
184
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
905MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 May18 May

How it evolved, day by day

891112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
43km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 31 May.

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
    2,220 ha reached on 7 May
    1.1 %
  2. Villa Purificación
    130 ha reached on 14 May
    0.1 %

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)
7 May 27.3 °C 46 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 May 27.4 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 May 27.8 °C 43 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 May 26.5 °C 48 % 41 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
11 May 27.2 °C 56 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
12 May 28.3 °C 46 % 37 km/h 2.0 mm Low 10
13 May 27.4 °C 50 % 39 km/h 2.0 mm Low 7
14 May 28.5 °C 47 % 36 km/h 8.5 mm Very low 4
15 May 28.4 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.9 mm Low 10
16 May 28.3 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 May 28.9 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 May 29.5 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 May after 27.7 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 May after 27.4 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 May after 27.6 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 May after 28.2 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 May after 27.7 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 May after 28.4 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 May after 28.0 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 May after 27.7 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
27 May after 28.2 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
28 May after 27.4 °C 51 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 May after 28.1 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
30 May after 27.8 °C 48 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
31 May after 28.2 °C 43 % 37 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 May 2016
After · 25 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 · 184Every 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 8 May 2016 and 18 May 2016: 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 2,336 hectares (23.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: La Huerta (2,220 ha, 1.1 %); Villa Purificación (130 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.