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Olinalá fire, March 2018 Ahuacuotzingo, Olinalá

Out · last detection 24 Mar 2018, 08:26 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2018 in Olinalá, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,222 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 357th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 130 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.4 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
2,222ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
18 Mar 2018 – 24 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Mar
2018
Heat detections
99
in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
472MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar24 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324

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
44km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 31 Mar.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Ahuacuotzingo
    1,625 ha reached on 19 Mar
    1.9 %
  2. Olinalá where it started
    609 ha reached on 18 Mar
    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, this fire started on 22 March 2018 and burned 919 ha (the satellite measured 2,222 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)
18 Mar 28.3 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Mar 30.5 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Mar 31.6 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Mar 30.0 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.7 mm High 22
22 Mar 30.0 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Mar 29.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Mar 29.5 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Mar after 29.9 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Mar after 30.2 °C 25 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Mar after 30.5 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Mar after 30.4 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Mar after 30.3 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Mar after 28.9 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
31 Mar after 29.1 °C 31 % 37 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2018
After · 31 Mar 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 · 99Every 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 Olinalá fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2018 and 24 March 2018: 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 2,222 hectares (22.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ahuacuotzingo (1,625 ha, 1.9 %); Olinalá (609 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.

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.