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Madera fire, 4 May 2018 Madera, Temósachic

Out · last detection 6 Jun 2018, 08:36 UTC

The fire started on 4 May 2018 in Madera, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,227 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 234 with a page). The largest in Mexico in 2018, of 233.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Madera · 2017Madera · 2024Madera · 2019Temósachic · 2022

Burnt area
36,227ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
34days
4 May 2018 – 6 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
4 May
2018
Heat detections
2,714
in a single hotspot: 151 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Average daily power
613MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 May6 Jun
6 Jun 2018

How it evolved, day by day

4 May 2018 · 206 MW · 23 5 May 2018 · 169 MW · 63 6 May 2018 · 85 MW · 16 7 May 2018 · 117 MW · 10 8 May 2018 · 436 MW · 27 9 May 2018 · 329 MW · 44 10 May 2018 · 102 MW · 23 11 May 2018 · 149 MW · 34 12 May 2018 · 5 MW · 4 13 May 2018 · 252 MW · 43 14 May 2018 · 871 MW · 122 15 May 2018 · 924 MW · 152 16 May 2018 · 680 MW · 110 17 May 2018 · 3,406 MW · 266 18 May 2018 · 1,766 MW · 147 19 May 2018 · 1,451 MW · 206 20 May 2018 · 1,563 MW · 245 21 May 2018 · 1,031 MW · 168 22 May 2018 · 1,908 MW · 277 23 May 2018 · 781 MW · 100 24 May 2018 · 881 MW · 88 25 May 2018 · 924 MW · 127 26 May 2018 · 464 MW · 79 27 May 2018 · 184 MW · 25 28 May 2018 · 554 MW · 89 29 May 2018 · 389 MW · 44 30 May 2018 · 128 MW · 47 31 May 2018 · 637 MW · 42 1 Jun 2018 · 236 MW · 38 2 Jun 2018 · 87 MW · 31 3 Jun 2018 · 1 MW · 1 4 Jun 2018 · 37 MW · 7 5 Jun 2018 · 82 MW · 15 6 Jun 2018 · 0 MW · 1
4 May 9 May 14 May 17 May 19 May 24 May 29 May 3 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
54km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 7 Jun.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 437 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 23% of the area of London (362 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Madera where it started
    36,037 ha reached on 4 May
    4.1 %
  2. Temósachic
    157 ha
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

Official record

Several official records match this area

According to CONAFOR, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 23,676 ha (the satellite measured 36,227 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

CONAFOR records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.

When each one burned

1 4,850 ha 2 18,826 ha
4 May5 Jun
cause unknown or not published
  1. 1 Madera Ej. Huizopa, P.P. El Terrero, Com. Yepachi 4 May 2018 4,850 ha · extinguished on 23 May 2018 · cause: unknown
  2. 2 Madera Ej. Huizopa 13 May 2018 18,826 ha · extinguished on 6 June 2018 · cause: unknown

Total according to CONAFOR: 23,676 ha, 65 % of the 36,227 ha in the satellite perimeter.

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)
4 May 27.8 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 May 29.4 °C 21 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 May 29.4 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.6 mm High 34
7 May 31.3 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 May 29.4 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 May 30.8 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 May 31.8 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 May 29.3 °C 20 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 May 26.5 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 May 27.5 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 May 28.9 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 May 30.6 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 May 32.5 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 May 30.3 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 May 28.1 °C 11 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 May 27.8 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 May 29.5 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 May 29.2 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 May 28.2 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 May 29.8 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 May 31.3 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 May 32.9 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 May 33.2 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 May 31.7 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 May 32.0 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 May 31.7 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 May 31.4 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 May 33.8 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Jun 33.8 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Jun 35.1 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jun 35.9 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 56
4 Jun 32.9 °C 27 % 46 km/h 1.1 mm High 33
5 Jun 30.4 °C 34 % 42 km/h 6.9 mm Low 8
6 Jun 32.3 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.9 mm High 27
7 Jun after 32.9 °C 24 % 32 km/h 1.1 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Apr 2018
After · 13 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 · 2,714Every 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 Madera fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 May 2018 to 6 June 2018 (34 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 May 2018 to 5 June 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 36,227 hectares (362.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Madera (36,037 ha, 4.1 %); Temósachic (157 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
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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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 May 2018 to 5 June 2018. 2,714 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with CONAFOR: 23,676 official ha against 36,227 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.