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Mocorito fire, May 2023 Badiraguato, Mocorito

Out · last detection 25 May 2023, 19:40 UTC

The fire started on 6 May 2023 in Mocorito, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,401 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Sinaloa since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 20 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.

Burnt area
7,401ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
6 May 2023 – 25 May 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 May
2023
Heat detections
411
in a single hotspot: 101 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 May 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 May25 May

How it evolved, day by day

689101112131415161718192122232425

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
53km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 819 ha in 2016, 5,375 ha in 2018, 3,647 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,265 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Badiraguato
    4,498 ha reached on 8 May
    0.9 %
  2. Mocorito where it started
    2,947 ha reached on 5 May
    1.0 %

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.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 5 May 2023 and burned 5,299 ha (the satellite measured 7,401 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)
5 May 29.2 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 May 27.5 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 May 29.6 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 May 30.1 °C 7 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 May 29.5 °C 6 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 May 28.4 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 May 27.8 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 May 26.1 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 May 26.1 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 May 26.1 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 May 27.9 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 May 27.7 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
17 May 26.1 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 40
18 May 26.5 °C 29 % 53 km/h 1.0 mm High 29
19 May 24.9 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
20 May 27.5 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
21 May 31.8 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 May 32.2 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 May 30.9 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 May 30.9 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 May 29.9 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 May after 28.8 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 May after 28.7 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 May after 26.9 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 May after 26.9 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 May after 27.3 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 May after 28.7 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Jun after 27.9 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Jun after 28.6 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Jun after 27.5 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Jun after 30.3 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Jun after 29.7 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Jun after 27.7 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Jun after 27.1 °C 39 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
8 Jun after 27.7 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Apr 2023
After · 1 Jun 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 23 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 52 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak52 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1074 µg/m³
Optical depth0.45
45678910111213141516171819202122232425262728
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 411Every 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 Mocorito fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 May 2023 and 25 May 2023: 20 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 7,401 hectares (74.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Badiraguato (4,498 ha, 0.9 %); Mocorito (2,947 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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
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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.