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Mochitlán fire, May 2020 Mochitlán, Chilpancingo de los Bravo

Out · last detection 24 May 2020, 20:26 UTC

The fire started on 15 May 2020 in Mochitlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,767 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 171th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 50 in Mexico in 2020, of 243.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.8 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
3,767ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
15 May 2020 – 24 May 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 May
2020
Heat detections
159
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
848MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 May 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 May24 May

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
53km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 3 Jun.

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 78 ha in 2017, 426 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Mochitlán where it started
    3,786 ha reached on 15 May
    7.3 %
  2. Chilpancingo de los Bravo 283,354 inhabitants
    0 ha
    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)
15 May 35.1 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 May 35.4 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 May 36.9 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 May 35.2 °C 21 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 May 35.9 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 May 34.5 °C 29 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 May 33.2 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 May 35.0 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 May 33.4 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 May 34.8 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 May after 33.0 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 May after 32.7 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 May after 34.4 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 May after 35.5 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 May after 34.0 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 May after 33.9 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 42
31 May after 34.0 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Jun after 32.8 °C 41 % 47 km/h 0.8 mm High 27
2 Jun after 33.2 °C 35 % 47 km/h 0.5 mm High 31
3 Jun after 31.8 °C 46 % 35 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 May 2020
After · 31 May 2020

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 · 159Every 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 15 May 2020 and 24 May 2020: 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 3,767 hectares (37.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mochitlán (3,786 ha, 7.3 %); Chilpancingo de los Bravo (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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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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.