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La Huerta fire, May 2018 La Huerta, Cuautitlán de García Barragán

Out · last detection 27 May 2018, 08:26 UTC

The fire started on 18 May 2018 in La Huerta, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,321 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 149th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 121 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.9 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
2,321ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
18 May 2018 – 27 May 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 May
2018
Heat detections
121
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
405MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 May27 May

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
45km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.4 mm on 4 Jun.

This area had burned before

96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,220 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. La Huerta where it started
    2,190 ha reached on 18 May
    1.1 %
  2. Cuautitlán de García Barragán
    142 ha reached on 19 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.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 21 May 2018 and burned 853 ha (the satellite measured 2,321 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

CONAFOR (Comisión Nacional Forestal), estadística de incendios forestales en datos.gob.mx (CC BY 4.0). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

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)
18 May 28.1 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 May 27.9 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 May 28.2 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 May 28.2 °C 48 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 May 28.8 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 May 28.9 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 May 28.2 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 May 28.0 °C 47 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 May 28.2 °C 49 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 May 27.5 °C 51 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 May after 27.4 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 May after 27.4 °C 56 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
30 May after 28.7 °C 52 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
31 May after 27.6 °C 57 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
1 Jun after 28.3 °C 60 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
2 Jun after 28.7 °C 51 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Jun after 28.2 °C 55 % 35 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 15
4 Jun after 28.1 °C 62 % 34 km/h 9.4 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 May 2018
After · 3 Jun 2018

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 · 121Every 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 18 May 2018 and 27 May 2018: 10 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 2,321 hectares (23.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: La Huerta (2,190 ha, 1.1 %); Cuautitlán de García Barragán (142 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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.