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La Huerta fire, April 2017 La Huerta

Out · last detection 20 Apr 2017, 20:14 UTC

The fire started on 12 April 2017 in La Huerta, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,519 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 279th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 366 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
1,519ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
12 Apr 2017 – 20 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Apr
2017
Heat detections
67
in a single hotspot: 173 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Apr20 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516181920

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
45km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 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
    1,527 ha reached on 12 Apr
    0.8 %

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)
12 Apr 29.9 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Apr 30.3 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Apr 31.7 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Apr 31.7 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Apr 31.0 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Apr 30.4 °C 53 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
18 Apr 31.8 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Apr 29.6 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Apr 29.6 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Apr after 28.9 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Apr after 28.5 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Apr after 29.3 °C 54 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 Apr after 29.8 °C 55 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 Apr after 29.4 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 Apr after 31.0 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Apr after 30.0 °C 48 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Apr after 29.4 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Apr after 29.2 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
30 Apr after 29.5 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Apr 2017
After · 27 Apr 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 · 67Every 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 12 April 2017 and 20 April 2017: 9 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 1,519 hectares (15.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered La Huerta (1,527 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.