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Mochitlán fire, 12 May 2019 Juan R. Escudero, Mochitlán, Chilpancingo de los Bravo

Out · last detection 19 May 2019, 19:42 UTC

The fire started on 12 May 2019 in Mochitlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,379 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 199th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 117 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.1 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
3,379ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
12 May 2019 – 18 May 2019
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
12 May
2019
Heat detections
144
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
626MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 May18 May

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
51km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.0 mm on 27 May.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,948 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Juan R. Escudero
    2,366 ha reached on 13 May
    5.8 %
  2. Mochitlán where it started
    930 ha reached on 12 May
    1.8 %
  3. Chilpancingo de los Bravo 283,354 inhabitants
    103 ha reached on 18 May
    0.0 %

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)
10 May 28.6 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 May 28.0 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 May 28.2 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 May 28.7 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 May 29.5 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 May 30.1 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 May 29.3 °C 33 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 May 28.5 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 May 31.1 °C 42 % 42 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 21
19 May after 29.8 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.7 mm High 25
20 May after 31.0 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 May after 31.1 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 May after 29.4 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 May after 30.8 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 May after 30.4 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 May after 29.1 °C 45 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
26 May after 29.8 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
27 May after 26.9 °C 56 % 40 km/h 7.0 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 May 2019
After · 25 May 2019

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 · 144Every 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 Mochitlán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 May 2019 and 18 May 2019: 7 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 3,379 hectares (33.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Juan R. Escudero (2,366 ha, 5.8 %); Mochitlán (930 ha, 1.8 %); Chilpancingo de los Bravo (103 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 51 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.

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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.