Skip to content
worldfires
MX · Mexico · →

Mina fire, May 2022 Bustamante, Mina, Villaldama

Out · last detection 22 May 2022, 08:23 UTC

The fire started on 10 May 2022 in Mina, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,028 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Nuevo León since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 76 in Mexico in 2022, of 235.

Burnt area
3,028ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
10 May 2022 – 22 May 2022
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
10 May
2022
Heat detections
137
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
792MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 May 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 May22 May

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516171819202122

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
58km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.6 mm on 23 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. Bustamante
    1,395 ha reached on 17 May
    3.0 %
  2. Mina where it started
    825 ha reached on 10 May
    0.2 %
  3. Villaldama
    820 ha reached on 13 May
    0.9 %

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, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,644 ha (the satellite measured 3,028 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)
10 May 28.5 °C 43 % 54 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 18
11 May 28.2 °C 33 % 57 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
12 May 30.5 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 May 29.5 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.8 mm High 22
14 May 29.6 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
15 May 32.3 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 May 31.7 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 May 32.7 °C 16 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 May 32.7 °C 26 % 37 km/h 1.6 mm High 24
19 May 33.3 °C 22 % 38 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 20
20 May 35.0 °C 7 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 May 35.7 °C 9 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 May 23.1 °C 48 % 41 km/h 5.4 mm Very low 4
23 May after 21.0 °C 56 % 47 km/h 8.6 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 May 2022
After · 29 May 2022

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 · 137Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mina fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 May 2022 and 22 May 2022: 13 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 3,028 hectares (30.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bustamante (1,395 ha, 3.0 %); Mina (825 ha, 0.2 %); Villaldama (820 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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

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.